Doris Kearns Goodwin Quotes

I think that not being perfect has given me the freedom to keep getting better.

Appius Livius Ocella made mistakes in his whole long existence. Perhaps changing Eric was his finest hour. He created the perfect vampire. Eric's only flaw is you.

I felt as if I learned a few things. I learned that it's sometimes okay to think like a weenie, so long as you don't act like one—at least not all the time. I learned that it's okay to be wrong, as long as you can admit it and are willing to listen to those who may know better.

One errs as long as one strives.

It's easier to say, 'Don't care about what anyone thinks,' than it is to actually not care about what anyone thinks. But, honestly, anything you're passionate about, that's what you'll be the best at.

We are all born idolaters, and idolatry is good, because it is in the nature of man. Who can get beyond it? Only the perfect man, the God-man. The rest are all idolaters. So long as we see this universe before us, with its forms and shapes, we are all idolaters. This is a gigantic symbol we are worshipping. He who says he is the body is a born idolater.

I love what I do, and I always make sure to tell my fans I'm not perfect, so don't think I am. I make mistakes. I'm human, and we all are. But I try to be the best I can be, and that's all I really can do.

I don't want to tell people what to think. I'm the least qualified person in the world for that. If I'd go around pretending to be the expert on everything, I'd become Dan Brown, and I don't understand that. We all do our research if we're good writers, and we all work hard to get it right, but that doesn't mean we're experts in the field. The best we can do is challenge people to learn the facts themselves.

No one's walking around here perfect. Everyone's gonna make mistakes. That's part of how you learn.

Be confident and comfortable with yourself. If you know us, we are definitely not shy, and never try to be anything we are not. No matter what anyone tells you, you are perfect, just the way you are.

If people don't like you, or they think you're strange, then that's their problem.

Approval isn’t necessary. It’s nice when you get it, but it’s not going to stop us from being who we are. I mean, if I’d have listened to approval, I’d never have made it one day onstage. But to be criticized, if there’s validity, as upset as you are, you can learn from it.

But people are going to say what they want to say. I know who I am, and I'm not perfect.

If you think you're perfect already, then you never will be.

Nobody's perfect, but at the same time, I always try to learn from my mistakes.

Have confidence in your decisions. Make them expeditiously, and stay with them as long as you believe you are correct no matter what others say. However, when you conclude you were in error, do not hesitate to announce the error publicly and change course.

I think it's important to remember that these men are not perfect. If they were marble gods, what they did wouldn't be so admirable. The more we see the founders as humans the more we can understand them.

Confidence doesn't come from thinking you're perfect or flawless. That's arrogance. Confidence comes from appreciating the beauty of your texture.

God bears with imperfect beings even when they resist His goodness. We ought to imitate this merciful patience and endurance. It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are, the more gentle and quiet we become toward the defects of other people.

I think her flaws make me love her even more. She's not perfect, but she's perfect to me

There are always things that I think I wish I could have done better.

You don't have to be perfect to be awesome.

I think my favorite fact about myself is that I have never been dismayed by a critic's bilge or bile, and have never once in my life asked or thanked a reviewer for a review.

When the Lord finished the world, he pronounced it good. That is what I said about my first work, too. But Time, I tell you, Time takes the confidence out of these incautious opinions. It is more than likely that He thinks about the world, now, pretty much as I think about the Innocents Abroad. The fact is, there is a trifle too much water in both.

Too many times I’ve been wrong, I guess being right takes too long.