Daniel Patrick Moynihan Quotes

Good enough never is.

The good is always the enemy of the best.

The best is the enemy of the good.

There's an expression: Great is the enemy of the good. Sometimes in trying to be great, you make a mess of things.

Good is often the enemy of best.

The thing I'm not good with is mediocrity, when someone isn't really trying to reach something.

Really great design is hard. Good is the enemy of great.

Don’t tolerate any form of average. Don’t accept Dis-excellence. Don’t stand for mediocre. If you’re going to settle, then please settle for the absolute best.

For what level of mediocrity will you settle?

I think the main thing I would say is, don't settle. Don't settle for something that's not great.

I am incapable of mediocrity.

It's not willing to settle for anything less than success.

Never settle for second when first is available

Once you compromise yourself in one way, you compromise yourself in another way. And you've just opened the door to compromise, mediocrity, settling.

Don't ever let good enough be good enough.

None of the arts are any good unless you really are great at them.

People always try to be perfect. That's why they don't start anything. Perfection is the lowest standard in the world. Because if you're trying to be perfect, you know you can't be. So what you really have is a standard you can never achieve. You want to be outstanding, not perfect.

I would rather spend my entire life doing nothing than have my name attached to something mediocre.

If anyone thinks my show was 'pretty good,' then I've completely failed.

How do we appreciate the good without letting it be the enemy of the perfect? How do we keep a step in the right direction from becoming a stopping point? How do we get beyond shades of insipid light green?

It's easy to fall into the trap of just cranking out things that are good enough to sell.

Be great at what you do, and don't ever settle for mediocrity or else you will always wonder how great you could have been.

If your standards are low, you're going to stop pretty early on in the process.

The good is the enemy of the best.