David Whyte Quotes

I don't think there's any such thing as perfection. But I'm a perfectionist. I don't believe in the idea of perfection, but I will strive to achieve it.

To want to become angels while we are still on earth ... is ridiculous.

Comfort is everything. You start doing something and you want it to be perfect right away, but most babies are born ugly and then they shake it out and you get beautiful toddlers.

Alas! we makeA ladder of our thoughts, where angels step,But sleep ourselves at the foot: our high resolvesLook down upon our slumbering acts.

I'm not perfect, but I'd like to be perfect. I'm working on it.

Perfection is immutable. But for things imperfect, change is the way to perfect them.

I don't want to call myself a perfectionist, because perfection is imperfection.

They say that nobody is perfect. Then they tell you practice makes perfect. I wish they'd make up their minds.

Well has it been said that man is the only animal that naturally looks upwards; every other animal naturally looks down. That looking upward and going upward and seeking perfection are what is called salvation; and the sooner a man begins to go higher, the sooner he raises himself towards this idea of truth as salvation.

If you're looking for perfection, look in the mirror. If you find it there, expect it elsewhere.

I am not a perfectionist, but still I seek perfection. I am not a great romantic, but yet I yearn 4 affection

We can never attain to perfection while we have an affection for any imperfection.

But I am learning that perfection isn't what matters. In fact, it's the very thing that can destroy you if you let it.

The maxims tell you to aim at perfection, which is well; but it's unattainable, all the same.

The most radical division that it is possible to make of humanity is that which splits it into two classes of creatures: Those who make great demands on themselves, piling up difficulties and duties; and those who demand nothing special of themselves, but for whom to live is to be every moment what they already are, without imposing on themselves any effort towards perfection, mere buoys that float on the waves.

Good enough is good enough. Perfect will make you a big fat mess every time.

I will never reach perfection.

You will come closer and closer to perfection, but you will never be perfect. Perfection is not the way of existence. Growth is the way.

You must climb above yourself-up and beyond, until you have even your stars under you.

I reflected on the fact that no matter how good I aspired to be, I was never going to achieve perfection

The years that pass eat up your margin for error until there is no margin left. The mistakes you make are no longer flaws of inexperience, they are flaws of character. To be young is to be constantly on the precipice of perfection—just a little further and you’ll get there—but you never get there, and suddenly you’re old, and find yourself in a permanent state of imperfection, which you must reckon with.

Nobody looks like they did when they were 20, so why not take advantage of the fact that you're changing, emotionally as well as physically?

I heat myself up over the fact that I am never going to be as good as I want to be.

Everybody wants to be perfect.

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