Robertson Davies Quotes

It's uncomfortable to challenge the status quo.

I wouldn't say I'm normal. But I'm relatively stable. When I think of normal, I think of mediocrity, and mediocrity scares the f--- out of me.

Mediocrity triumphs because it presents itself as democratic and because it is dull, and so for many does not seem worth struggling against.

To the mediocre, mediocrity is a form of happiness.

I am one of the great army of mediocrity which constitutes the majority.

The status quo is a powerful force.

Who says what is the right way and what isn't? That is some imagined social construct that people made up to feel okay about being average.

Folks will always, always, always go back to the comfortable status quo, with its silent voices and lack of conflict, if you give them the chance.

Caution is the path to mediocrity.

Defending mediocrity is exhausting.

If perfect's what you're searching for, then just stay the same.

Those who build and perpetuate mediocrity...are motivated more by the fear of being left behind.

Mediocrity inspires neither great love nor hate.

And meanwhile the sad truth was that not everyone could be extraordinary, not everyone could be extremely cool; because whom would this leave to be ordinary?

You'll turn out ordinary if you're not careful.

Ninety-eight percent are boxes, which tells me that a lot of people are in denial. We live and work in boxes. People don't even notice that. Most of what's around us is banal. We live with it. We accept it as inevitable. People say, "This is the world the way it is, and don't bother me." Then when somebody does something different, real architecture, the push-back is amazing. People resist it. At first it's new and scary.

Those who don't want to change, let them sleep.

Mediocrity is excellence in the eyes of the mediocre.

Everything in our political life tends to hide from us that there is anything wiser than our ordinary selves.

All my friends are super normal.

We don't see the banality, but we accept banality. We accept it as inevitable, and it's not.

The only glory most of us have to hope for is the glory of being normal.

The overwhelming pressure of mediocrity, sluggish and indomitable as a glacier, will mitigate the most violent, and depress the most exalted revolution.

Normal is absolutely my least favorite word.

Mediocrity is gonna kill the world before Armageddon ever does.