Max Beerbohm Quotes

Only mediocre people are at the best all the time.

Nothing is more expensive than mediocrity.

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

Our goal, simply stated, is to be the best.

Only the mediocre are always at their best.

If you're going to make rubbish, be the best rubbish in it.

It is a wretched taste to be gratified with mediocrity when the excellent lies before us.

The idea for which this nation stands will not survive if the highest goal free man can set themselves is an amiable mediocrity. Excellence implies striving for the highest standards in every phase of life.

One cannot develop taste from what is of average quality but only from the very best.

We had hundreds of thousands of people all dedicated to doing the perfect job, and I think they did about as well as anyone could ever have expected.

Both 'The Daily Show' and 'The Colbert Report,' you're working with the best. When you work with the best, you have to raise your game. If you're working with people who are sub par, you're not forced to give 100 percent because you can get by on 80 percent.

Whatever I do, I hope it's quality, I hope it's something that's class.

When you have had a taste of excellence, you cannot go back to mediocrity.

Quality survives.

Excellence always sells.

There is an infinite difference between a little wrong and just right, between fairly good and the best, between mediocrity and superiority.

First be best, then be first.

I want things to be the best they can be. I want greatness.

On the other hand, always aim to be the best in what you do and give 100%.

To me, the only sin is mediocrity.

If you demand the best, sometimes you get it.

What is excellence? It is about going a little beyond what we expect from ourselves. Part of the need for excellence is imposed on us externally by our customers. Our competition keeps us on our toes, especially when it is global in nature.

Excellence is the accumulation of hundreds of minute decisions; it is execution at the most granular level. Once you accept the idea that you should give in to things that make no sense because other people do those things and you want to appear reasonable, you are on a path towards mediocrity.

It's always nice to be among the best teams but not everyone can do that.

I wanted to be consistent in my career and not have an off year. I wanted to play well and be on top of things.