Mediocrity Quotes

Only mediocrity can be trusted to be always at its best.

Being famous is not something that would make me feel successful - unless one was striving for mediocrity.

To the mediocre, mediocrity is a form of happiness.

Ain't no man can avoid being average, but there ain't no man got to be common.

To use many words to communicate few thoughts is everywhere the unmistakable sign of mediocrity. To gather much thought into few words stamps the man of genius.

The good is the enemy of the best.

The politician who tries to ape his rival or predecessor is, almost by definition, a second rater, inferior to the real thing.

The best is the enemy of the good.

Not failure, but low aim is sin.

That, however, is - mediocrity, though it be called moderation.

Indiscriminate pursuit of perfection infallibly leads to mediocrity.

Mediocrity is the most effective mask a superior spirit can wear, because to the great majority, which is to say, to the mediocre,it will not suggest a disguise:--and yet it is precisely for their sake that he puts it on--so as not to arouse them, and, indeed, not infrequently to avoid this out of pity and benevolence.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.

Only a mediocre person is always at his best.

I think the world is run by 'C' students.

The ideal of many ideologies in our time has, frankly, become a world of perfect safety, devoid of risk or failure, with neither the glory of victory nor the shame of defeat. Too often these days, we build downwards. We design our standards to ensure no one will lose; we preoccupy ourselves more with the comfort of the worst than the potential of the best. We hold the most exceptional things among us hostage to the average, the ordinary, the mediocre.

"Mediocrity" doesn't mean average intelligence, it means an average intelligence that resents and envies its betters.

Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius.

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.

Everyone rises to their level of incompetence.

To love what is below the human is degradation; to love what is human for the sake of the human is mediocrity; to love the human for the sake of the Divine is enriching; to love the Divine for its own sake is sanctity.

The tragedy of life is often not in our failure, but rather in our complacency; not in our doing too much, but rather in our doing too little; not in our living above our ability, but rather in our living below our capacities.

I looked for great men, but all I found were the apes of their ideals.

Only mediocrity can be trusted to be always at its best. Genius must always have lapses proportionate to its triumphs.

Time is the friend of the wonderful company, the enemy of the mediocre.