Quote Lady's Quotes by Subject, Perfectionism

Perfectionism

Most people are willing to work hard for success whether it's in pursuit of a business administration degree or a promotion at your current job. Perfectionists tend to value themselves on the basis of other people's approval, and to believe a state of flawlessness can and should be attained in all they do. Many of the quotes below criticize perfectionism and say it negatively affects creativity.

see also Mistakes

Aim at perfection in everything, though in most things it is unattainable. However, they who aim at it, and persevere, will come much nearer to it than those whose despondency and laziness make them give it up as unattainable.--Philip Dormer Chesterfield
Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life. Remember that fear always lurks behind perfectionism. Confronting your fears and allowing yourself the right to be human can, paradoxically, make yourself a happier and more productive person.--Dr. David M. Burns
All things are literally better, lovelier, and more beloved for the imperfections which have been divinely appointed, that the law of human life may be effort, and the law of human judgment, mercy.--John Ruskin (The Stones of Venice)
At the root of human responsibility is the concept of perfect, the urge to achieve it, the intelligence to find a path towards it, and the will to follow that path, if not to the end at least the distance needed to rise above individual limitations and environmental impediments.--Aung San Sun Kyi
The battle to keep up appearances unnecessarily, the mask - whatever name you give creeping perfectionism - robs us of our energies.--Robin Worthington
Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing flawlessly.--Robert Schuller
A child becomes an adult when he realises that he has a right not only to be right but also to be wrong.--Thomas Szasz
The chimerical pursuit of perfection is always linked to some important deficiency, frequently the inability to love.--Bernard Grasset (Les Chimins de l'eciture)
The closest to perfection a person ever comes is when he fills out a job application form.--Evan Esar
A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
False notes [on the piano] are human. Why does everything have to be perfect? You know, perfection itself is imperfection.--Vladimir Horowitz (in "Return of the Thunderer" Newsweek May 17, 1965)
Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.--Ghandi, 1931
Gently remind yourself that life is okay the way it6 is, right now. In the absence of your judgment, everything would be fine. As you begin to eliminate your need for perfection in all areas of your life, you'll begin to discover the perfection in life itself.--Richard Carlson (Don't Sweat the Small Stuff)
I find in all the artists that I admire most a disturbing element, a distortion, giving evidence of a struggle... In great art, this conflict is hidden, it is unresolved. All that is bursting with energy is disturbing--not perfect.--Henry Moore
I think perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each stepping-stone just right, you won't have to die. The truth is that you will die anyway and that a lot of people who aren't even looking at their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you, and have a lot more fun while they're doing it.--Anne Lamott (Bird by Bird)
I'm a perfectionist, so I can drive myself mad - and other people, too. At the same time, I think that's one of the reasons I'm successful. Because I really care about what I do.--Michelle Pfeiffer ("Interview by Jane Wollman Rusoff")
In order to go on living one must try to escape the death involved in perfectionism.--Hannah Arendt (Rachel Varnhagen)
It is reasonable to have perfection in our eye that we may always advance toward it, though we know it can never be reached.--Samuel Johnson
A man would do nothing, if he waited until he could do it so well that no one would find fault with what he has done.--John Henry Cardinal Newman
Moreover, perfectionist standards do not allow for failure. They do not even allow for life, and certainly not death.--Marion Woodman ("Addiction to Perfection")
Nothing gives a man a sense of failure so often as an overdeveloped sense of perfection.--George S. Odiorue
Nothing would be done at all if one waited until one could do it so well that no one could find fault with it.--Cardinal Newman
Old age tells us that we ourselves have failed often, have never really done anything completely right, have never truly been perfect - anad that is completely all right. We are who we are - and so is everyone else.--Joan Chittister (The Gift of Years: Growing Older Gracefully)
The only nice thing about being imperfect is the joy it brings to others.--Doug Larson
Perfection has one grave defect: it is apt to be dull.--W. Somerset Maugham (The Summing Up)
Perfection, fortunately, is not the only alternative to mediocrity. A more sensible alternative is excellence. Striving for excellence is stimulating and rewarding; striving for perfection--in practically anything--is both neurotic and futile.--Edwin Bliss
Perfection does not exist in doing extraordinary things, but in doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.--Angelique Arnauld
Perfectionism is a mean, frozen form of idealism, while messes are the artist's true friend.--Ann Lamont (Bird by Bird)
Perfectionism is the enemy of creation, as extreme self-solicitude is the enemy of well-being.--John Updike
Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life...--Anne Lamott (Bird by Bird)
Perfectionsim means that you try desperately not to leave so much mess to clean up. But cluter and mess show us that life is being lived.--Anne Lamott (Bird by Bird)
A person determined never to be wrong won't likely accomplish much.--Ken Wisdom
A primary reason people don't do new things Is because they want to be able to do them perfectly--first time. It's completely irrational, impractical, not workable--and yet, it's how most people run their lives.--John-Roger and Peter McWilliams (Do It! Let's Get Off our Buts)
The pursuit of perfection often impedes improvement.--George Will
Ring the bells that still can ring,
Forget your perfect offering.
There's a hole in everything,
That's how the light comes thru.--Leonard Cohen ("Ring the Bells That Still Can Ring")
Sometimes you think that you need to be perfect, that you cannot make mistakes ... realize you are a human being - like everyone else capable of reaching great potential but not capable of being perfect.--Susan Polis Schutz
Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing.--Harriet Braiker
Striving to be better, oft we mar what's well.--Shakespeare (King Lear)
This is moral perfection: to live each day as though it were the last; to be tranquil, sincere.--Marcus Aurelius
Those who give too much attention to trifling things become generally incapable of great things.--La Rochefoucauld, François, duc de
Too many people miss the silver lining because they're expecting gold.--Maurice Setter
Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle.--Michelangelo
The way to succeed is to double your error rate.--Thomas J. Watson.
When you aim for perfection, you discover it's a moving target.--George Fisher
While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, another is busy making mistakes and becoming superior. --Henry C. Link
You cannot afford to wait for perfect conditions. Goal setting is often a matter of balancing timing against available resources. Opportunities are easily lost while waiting for perfect conditions.--Gary Ryan Blair (Mind Munchies : A Delicious Assortment of Brain Snacks!)

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