Hello everyone!
Today’s topics are: Quotes on Perfection and Excellence
These are The Magic Memories 151, gone online Sunday, November 19th, 2023, at 0:07h sharp.
All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.
As you are reading this I am on my way home from Florence and Torino, ready to tell you about my adventures in the next The Magic Memories 152.
Meanwhile consider each of the quotes below as a Zen Koan, and you will have enough food for thought until we next meet. I left some of the quotes in the original language I heard, read or found them.
Quotes on Perfection and Excellence
Good is better than perfect.
Strive for perfection, settle with excellence.
Perfection is not attainable. But if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence. – Vince Lombardi
Every job is a self-portrait of the person who does it. Autograph your work with excellence. – Jerry Smith
Ein Gericht ist perfekt, wenn man nichts mehr weglassen kann. – Joel Robuchon
Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry,
Perfektion ist nicht dann erreicht, wenn es nichts mehr hinzuzufügen gibt, sondern wenn man nichts mehr weglassen kann. – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Das ist alles, was wir tun können: immer wieder von neuem anfangen – immer wieder und wieder… -Thornton Wilder That’s all we do—always beginning again! Over and over again. Always beginning again.
Rastlos vorwärts musst du streben,
Nie ermüdet stille stehen!
Willst du die Vollendung sehen,
Musst ins Breite dich entfalten,
Soll sich dir die Welt gestalten!
In die Tiefe musst du steigen,
Soll sich dir das Wesen zeigen!
Nur Beharrung führt zum Ziel!
(Friedrich von Schiller)
Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning. – Benjamin Franklin
Quality is not an act, it is a habit. – Aristotle
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.
Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work. – Aristotle
Lieber fehlerhaft beginnen als perfekt verzögern.
Excellence is an art won by training and habituation: we not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but rather have these because we have acted rightly; these virtues are formed in man by doing his actions; we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. – Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy (1926)
If you perceive something that you think is brilliant, but cannot explain why, it probably is. – Roberto Giobbi
The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of his chosen field of endeavor. – Vince Lombardi
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit. ~ Aristotle
There is great satisfaction in learning something new, but there is even greater satisfaction in learning how to do something you already know better. – Roberto Giobbi)
Die Zeit vergeht, so oder so, aber wenn man inzwischen etwas tut, dann kann man nach dieser Zeit etwas, was die anderen, die währenddessen nichts taten, nicht können. – Roberto Giobbi)
Du bist nur gut, wenn Du Dinge machst, die dir selbst ähnlich sind. – Depardieu in an interview (Das Magazin 43/2010)
You should perform every trick as if it was the last. Roberto Giobbi inspired by: Man sollte jedes Konzert so spielen, als könnte es das letzte sein. – Sol Gabetta, argentinische Cellistin
In order to cut ham you need attitude, concentration, and technique… as well as a sharp knife. – anonymous Spanish ham cutter
Die That ist alles, nichts der Ruhm. – Goethe, Faust
Wish you all an excellent week!
Roberto Giobbi
