Take Note of These Quotes About: Excellence

Warren G. Bennis, a university professor and founding chairman of the Leadership Institute at the University of Southern California, is quoted as saying that "Excellence is a better teacher than mediocrity. The lessons of the ordinary are everywhere. Truly profound and original insights are to be found only in studying the exemplary". Taking his advice, what follows are the thoughts of exemplary people on the topic of excellence. If Mr. Bennis is right, it would behoove us all to pay close attention to what they have to say.

Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. - Aristotle, Greek philosopher

Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later. - Og Mandino, American author

The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor. - Vincent Lombardi, legendary football coach

Those who attain to any excellence commonly spend life in some single pursuit, for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms. - Samuel Johnson, British poet, essayist, moralist

To aim at excellence, our reputation, and friends, and all must be ventured; to aim at the average we run no risk and provide little service. - Oliver Goldsmith, Irish writer, poet, and physician

To enjoy the things we ought and to hate the things we ought has the greatest bearing on excellence of character. - Aristotle, Greek philosopher

Whatever you do, don't do it halfway. - Bob Beamon, Olympic athlete

When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another. - Helen Keller, American author, political activist and lecturer

Whoever I am, or whatever I am doing, some kind of excellence is within my reach. - John W. Gardner, Cabinet Secretary under President Johnson

People forget how fast you did a job, but they remember how well you did it. - Howard W. Newton, American businessman and author

Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better. - Pat Riley, Hall of Fame NBA coach

Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way. - Booker T. Washington, American political leader, educator, orator and author

Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. - Thomas Edison, American inventor, scientist, and businessman

I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end. - Abraham Lincoln, Assassinated President of the United States

It's never crowded along the extra mile. - Dr. Wayne Dyer, Motivational Author and Speaker