Lily Tomlin Quotes

Everyone's set the bar really high and expects me to be brilliant.

Everything I've ever done was out of fear of being mediocre.

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.

I've set the bar quite high in terms of storytelling.

When I was young, it was difficult to imagine entering a world where my parents succeeded so much and I could have risked failing. It would have felt much harder.

I have a horror of not rising above mediocrity.

Not failure, but low aim, is the crime.

When you are successful, there is the pressure of performing consistently; when you are not, there is the pressure of coming back and doing well.

I don't want to look back on my career at some point and say, 'What a pity, I came close a few times, but it was never good enough.'

I set really high expectations.

The problem is that right from the beginning, there was this whole pressure that I've had to make it big. I don't know if it's my fault or if someone else created this atmosphere around me, but it's been there.

Perfection is the often the enemy of greatness.

Most People have a desire to look for the exception instead of the desire to become exceptional.

Let us not be satisfied with a mediocre life.

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.

One has to set high standards... I can never be happy with mediocre performance.

I never aspired to be 2nd. I was taught... you can do whatever you want in this world, so why not be the best in the world?

Average is Your Enemy.

Winning isn't everything, but wanting it is.

There was this real fear in doing 'Square Pegs' after getting such a fast ride to glory on 'Saturday Night Live'. I was afraid that the word would be 'peaks early, fails to live up to promise.'

Am I coasting on some early success? Yeah. It was a good lucky break for me. But I would rather earn my way back again than simply conform to what people are expecting.

The best revenge is massive success.

Don't be afraid of failure; be afraid of petty success.

Writing on assignment, with lots of money handed to you before you even began, got very scary for me. My dread of not being perfect, something I got from a childhood surrounded by powerful, successful people, began to infect everything I wrote.

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