Excellence

We succeed in enterprises which demand the positive qualities we possess, but we excel in those which can also make use of our defects.
- Alexis de Tocqueville, 1805 - 1859

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, 384 - 322 BC

Striving for perfection is the greatest stopper there is. It's your excuse to yourself for not doing anything. Instead, strive for excellence, doing your best.
- Laurence Olivier, 1907 - 1989

If you don't do it excellently, don't do it at all. Because if it's not excellent, it won't be profitable or fun, and if you're not in business for fun or profit, what the hell are you doing there?
- Robert Townsend

If you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work.
- Thomas John Watson, Sr, 1874 - 1956

There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.
- Francis Bacon, 1561 - 1626