W. Somerset Maugham Quotes

Only the mediocre are always at their best.

Good is often the enemy of best.

The best is the enemy of the good.

The best is the enemy of the good enough.

You can't be perfect at everything.

Looking for perfection is the only way to motivate yourself.

I always try and be perfect in practice.

I just want to be perfect on court, but is not possible. The perfect doesn't exist.

Good is not good, where better is expected

Only mediocre people are at the best all the time.

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.

Strive for perfection - never be content with mediocrity. You don't win until you conquer the little flaws. You don't beat these great ones until your form is perfect. This is true in all of life. A flaw in a product can ruin a business. A personal failing, a little one, can ruin a person's life. Don't be content with mediocrity - strive to live up to the greatest within you.

I never competed against athletes. I competed against perfection.

You create a blueprint of your best performance, and you're happiest the night you surpass that blueprint. That won't happen that often, but it will happen. It's like sculpting: you keep refining. When you have a piece that is yours, that is just you, that becomes obsessive; you think about it all the time.

I always try to write the best I can.

I love to be challenged, and I'm never sitting comfortable in the mediocrity chair.

I don't think you can ever do your best. Doing your best is a process of trying to do your best.

Go for the gold: better one great column and some undistinguished ones than constant mediocrity.

I figured if you're going to do something, you should do it the best you can.

Really, who's the best at what they do? There's always room for improvement.

If I'd been a housemaid I'd have been the best in Australia - I couldn't help it. It's got to be perfection for me.

I want to be the best. That's just the human way.

Everybody wants to be perfect.

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

I always say I've given 24 insufficient performances and I'm looking forward to the time in my life when I'll do something that I think is good. There's always stuff you can do better, stuff that maybe you didn't uncover enough. But if you do something that you truly believe is perfect, then that's got to be the last movie you do.