Do it right or don't do it at all. That comes from my mom. If there's something I want to do, I'm one of those people that won't be satisfied until I get it done. If I'm trying to sing something and I can't get it, I'm going to keep at it until I get where I want it.
Only mediocrity can be trusted to be always at its best.
Gentlemen, we are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch it, because nothing is perfect. But we are going to relentlessly chase it, because in the process we will catch excellence. I am not remotely interested in just being good.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
I work hard and I have a standard of excellence - and I expect everyone at the Interior Department to meet that same standard. I delegate a lot. I might appear to be doing a lot of different things, but there's a strong team helping me. I believe we're going to have the strongest team of any agency in the Obama administration.
When you're a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you're not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You'll know it's there, so you're going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back.
People always try to be perfect. That's why they don't start anything. Perfection is the lowest standard in the world. Because if you're trying to be perfect, you know you can't be. So what you really have is a standard you can never achieve. You want to be outstanding, not perfect.
Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.
I expect people that come to the studio to work to come with the same energy I come with. If I see less than that, I get very strong about, if you want to do this, come with a sense of pride, come with eagerness and anxiety.
The Boston Globe's award-winning journalism as well as its rich history and tradition of excellence have established it as one of the most well-respected media companies in the country.
There are no excuses for theoretical physicists not to perform and deliver.
I'm somewhat of a perfectionist.
Is journalism a profession that serves the public by maintaining high standards, or is it a social construct that should be redesigned to directly serve certain social goods? Some argue that all journalism involves bias, either hidden or revealed. But it is one thing to say that objectivity and fairness are ultimately unreachable. It is another to cease grasping for them. That would be a world of purely private truths, in which the boldest liars and demagogues would thrive.
Other people may not have had high expectations for me... but I had high expectations for myself.
Always give your best and try to figure out how to do an even better job.
Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody expects of you. Never excuse yourself.
I used to focus so much on winning. I used to be such a perfectionist.
I've always had that personality that nothing was never good enough.
Men respect women who have standards - get some!
When I arrived in Texas in 2001, I felt an enormous amount of pressure. I felt like I had all the weight of the world on top of me, and I needed to perform, and perform at a high level every day.
I think it's flattering when people say I'm a role model, but I don't think I am. It depends on your outlook on the word 'role model.' I'm not perfect or anything. I just consider it a great compliment.
I've also seen that great men are often lonely. This is understandable, because they have built such high standards for themselves that they often feel alone. But that same loneliness is part of their ability to create.
You need to do the work to bring the money in, but not compromise standards.
Conte is a manager who works very hard and likes people to work hard for him as well.
If your fidelity to perfectionism is too high, you never do anything.
