Quotes about perfection

Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing.
 ~ Harriet Baker


Certain flaws are necessary for the whole.  
 ~ Goethe


Nothing that is complete breathes.
 ~ Antonio Porchia


A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault.
 ~ John Henry Newman


Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything,
That's how the light gets in.
 ~ Leonard Cohen


To escape criticism - do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.
 ~ Elbert Hubbard


Only in grammar can you be more than perfect.
 ~ William Safire


Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.
 ~ Henry van Dyke


Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands.  But like the seafaring man on the desert of wateres, you choose them as your guides, and following them you will reach your destiny.
 ~ Carl Schurz


Gold cannot be pure, and people cannot be perfect.
 ~ Chinese proverb


Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without.
 ~ Confucius
 (although I am not sure if I buy this.)


When you aim for perfection, you discover it's a moving target.
 ~ George Fisher


Once you accept the fact that you're not perfect, then you develop some confidence.
 ~ Rosalynn Carter


There are no perfect men in this world, only perfect intentions.
 ~ Pen Densham


The imperfections of a man, his frailties, his faults, are just as important as his virtues.  You can't separate them.  They're wedded.
 ~ Henry Miller


The human story does not always unfold like a mathematical calculation on the principle that two and two make four.  Sometimes in life they make five or minus three; and sometimes the blackboard topples down in the middle of the sum and leaves the class in disorder and the pedagogue with a black eye.
 ~ Winston Churchill


They say that nobody is perfect.  Then they tell you practice makes perfect.  I wish they'd make up their minds.
 ~ Wilt Chamberlain


Always live up to your standards - by lowering them, if necessary.
 ~ Mignon McLaughlin


He who hath not a dram of folly in his mixture hath pounds of much worse matter in his composition.
 ~ Charles Lamb


Even the best needles are not sharp at both ends.
 ~ Chinese proverb


The pursuit of perfection, then, is the pursuit of sweetness and light.
 ~ Matthew Arnold


Unless I accept my faults I will most certainly doubt my virtues.
 ~ Hugh Prather


Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
 ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry


Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it.
 ~ Salvador Dali


I cling to my imperfection, as the very essence of my being.
 ~ Anatole France


Living up to ideals is like doing everyday work with your Sunday clothes on.
 ~ Ed Howe
 (I don't really understand this, but I'm looking forward to thinking about it.)


Try as hard as we may for perfection, the net result of our labors is an amazing variety of imperfectness.  We are surprised at our own versatility in being able to fail in so many different ways.
 ~ Samuel McChord Crothers


--courtesy of quotegarden.com