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I respect everything in change and the solemn beauty of life and death... and therefore, while man is amidst the immense beauty of objective bodies, he must possess the capacity of self-perfection and must observe and represent his world with full confidence. (Ansel Adams)
It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are the more gentle and quiet we become towards the defects of others. (Joseph Addison)
Done is better than perfect. (Scott Allen)
We all want to be perfect angels / Stand up on high sing with the sky / What we are in confident dream / We wake to forget yet aren't what we seem... (Tony Anony)
I am nobody. Nobody is perfect. Therefore, I am perfect. (Anonymous)
Perfection cannot be rushed. (Anonymous)
Instead of waiting for perfection, run with what you do, and fix it along the way... (Paul Arden)
In order to go on living one must try to escape the death involved in perfectionism. (Hannah Arendt)
Not a having and a resting, but a growing and a becoming is the character of perfection as culture conceives it. (Matthew Arnold)
Ever since my childhood, I was haunted by the search for perfection. An imperfectly cut paper literally made me ill. I would guillotine it. (Hans Jean Arp)
If I waited for perfection... I would never write a word. (Margaret Atwood)
Perfection is boring. If a face doesn't have mistakes, it's nothing. (Kevyn Aucoin)
This is the very perfection of a man, to find out his own imperfections. (Saint Augustine)
There is such a thing as perfection... and our purpose for living is to find that perfection and show it forth... Each of us is in truth an unlimited idea of freedom. Everything that limits us we have to put aside. (Richard Bach)
We like the imperfect because it reminds us of ourselves. (Randy Bachman)
I'm just trying to make images as accurately as possible off my nervous system as I can. (Francis Bacon)
Studies perfect nature and are perfected still by experience. (Sir Francis Bacon)
The seed of your next art work lies embedded in the imperfections of your current piece. (David Bayles, Ted Orland)
In the landscape of extinction, precision is next to godliness. (Samuel Beckett)
Instinct perfected is a faculty of using and even constructing organized instruments; intelligence perfected is the faculty of making and using unorganized instruments. (Henri Bergson)
To do better is better than to be perfect. (Toba Beta)
perfection, n. An imaginary state of quality distinguished from the actual by an element known as excellence; an attribute of the critic. (Ambrose Bierce)
Removing the faults in a stagecoach may produce a perfect stagecoach, but it is unlikely to produce the first motor car. (Edward de Bono)
Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing. (Harriet B. Braiker)
Work to perfect the mind. There is no certitude but in what the mind conceives. (Georges Braque)
Many people think of perfectionism as striving to be your best, but it is not about self-improvement; it's about earning approval and acceptance. (Brene Brown)
Oh, the difference between nearly right and exactly right. (H. Jackson Brown, Jr.)
Faultless to a fault. (Robert Browning)
It's commonplace to nitpick on minor faults. But to actually improve on those minor faults - that's just tedious. (Benson Bruno)
Aim for success, not perfection. Remember that fear always lurks behind perfectionism. (Dr. David M. Burns)
To an engineer, good enough means perfect. With an artist, there's no such thing as perfect. (Alexander Calder)
Out of perfection nothing can be made. Every process involves breaking something up. (Joseph Campbell)
Dusting is a good example of the futility of trying to put things right. As soon as you dust, the fact of your next dusting has already been established. (George Carlin)
Imperfection clings to a person, and if they wait till they are brushed off entirely, they would spin for ever on their axis, advancing nowhere. (Thomas Carlyle)
Art is the perfect imperfection. (Alvaro Castagnet)
The greater the emphasis on perfection, the further it recedes. (Haridas Chaudhuri)
They say that nobody is perfect. Then they tell you practice makes perfect. I wish they'd make up their minds. (Winston Churchill)
Nothing quite new is perfect. (Cicero)
I am going for a level of perfection that is only mine... Most of the pleasure is in getting the last little piece perfect. (Chuck Close)
Ring the bells that still can ring / Forget your perfect offering / There is a crack in everything / That's how the light gets in. (Leonard Cohen)
Perfection is what we do. We go from work to work, thought to thought. And it's the experience of going from work to work that is the content of the work. (Matthew Collings)
Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without. (Confucius)
Light – dews – breezes – bloom – and freshness; not one of which... has yet been perfected on the canvas of any painter in the world. (John Constable)
Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it. (Salvador Dali)
The artist who aims at perfection in everything achieves it in nothing. (Eugene Delacroix)
Perfect numbers like perfect men are very rare. (Rene Descartes)
Art lives in the marrying of human perception and the imperfect human touch. (Dean Taylor Drewyer)
I hold that the perfection of form and beauty is contained in the sum of all men. (Albrecht Durer)
There is no such thing as perfection in art. There is only the continued pursuit of passion. (Barrett Edwards)
The more perfect the artist, the more completely separate in him will be the man who suffers and the mind which creates. (T. S. Eliot)
Art is the need to create; but in its essence, immense and universal, it is impatient of working with lame or tied hands, and of making cripples and monsters, such as all pictures and statues are. Nothing less than the creation of man and nature is its end. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
By definition, perfection is merely an absence of error. (Michael Epp)
It is often our own imperfection which makes us reprove the imperfection of others; a sharp-sighted self-love of others. (Francois Fenelon)
Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain it in anything. (Gustave Flaubert)
If you chase perfection, you often catch excellence. (William Fowble)
I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God's business. (Michael J. Fox)
Indiscriminate pursuit of perfection infallibly leads to mediocrity. (Henry Fuseli)
A principle is the expression of perfection, and as imperfect beings like us cannot practice perfection, we devise every moment limits of its compromise in practice. (Mahatma Gandhi)
-exasperated by certain people's photographic and inane perfection, according to Vincent Van Gogh (in letter #805)...
...for Christ's sake, were the mountains blue, then chuck on some blue and don't go telling me that it was a blue a bit like this or like that, it was blue wasn't it? Good - make them blue and that's enough! (Paul Gauguin)
Advance, and never halt, for advancing is perfection. Advance and do not fear the thorns in the path, for they draw only corrupt blood. (Kahlil Gibran)
Perfectionism is just fear in fancy shoes and a mink coat. (Elizabeth Gilbert)
Rate the intensive above the extensive. The perfect does not lie in quantity, but in quality. (Baltasar Gracian)
Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired. (Martha Graham)
This time, at last, it is the real, the unmistakable thing, simple - passionate - perfect -... (Kenneth Grahame)
Perfection doesn't exist in anyone. Striving for perfection in any part of our lives is a recipe for failure, since it can never be attained. (Dr. John Grohol)
-Jude the Obscure...
What at night had been perfect and ideal was by day the more or less defective real. (Thomas Hardy)
It is the imperfections in life that make it amusing and lovable. The imperfections of the world and its people add interest, and invoke curiosity, and humor. How boring would a perfect life be? (Cathy Harville)
Man is sadly retarded by allowable imperfections. (Henry S. Haskins)
Forget perfection; only God is perfect. Go for excellence. (William Herring)
You can spend a lifetime, and, if you're honest with yourself, never once was your work perfect. (Charlton Heston)
If you want me to play only the notes without any specific color dynamics, I will never make one mistake. (Vladimir Horowitz)
Perfection is perfectly simple; fouling things up requires true skill. (Douglas Horton)
Be careful, perfection can make persons and work pass out of sight. (Lucero Isaac)
It is reasonable to have perfection in our eye that we may always advance toward it, though we know it can never be reached. (Samuel Johnson)
The world is perfect. As you question your mind, this becomes more and more obvious. (Byron Katie)
We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly. (Sam Keen)
It's not about perfection; it's about the joy of striving. (Thomas Keller)
People with disabilities still constitute a small minority. Yet the Beautiful People – the slender, fair and perfect ones – form a minority that may be even smaller. (Debra Kent)
Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor. (Anne Lamott)
No one is perfect. It's not interesting to be perfect. (Lindsay Lohan)
And what is so rare as a day in June? / Then, if ever, come perfect days. (James Russell Lowell)
There is hope in honest error; none in the icy perfections of the mere stylist. (Charles Rennie Mackintosh)
-Life of Pi...
I wish I could convey the perfection of a seal slipping into water or a spider monkey swinging from point to point or a lion merely turning its head. But language founders in such seas. Better to picture it in your head if you want to feel it. (Yann Martel)
Exactitude is not truth. (Henri Matisse)
The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection. (Michelangelo)
Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle. (Michelangelo)
-to Paul Durand-Ruel...
I know well enough in advance that you'll find my paintings perfect. I know that if they are exhibited they'll be a great success, but I couldn't be more indifferent to it since I know they are bad, I'm certain of it. (Claude Monet)
The more perfect the approximation to truth, the more perfect is art. (Maria Montessori)
The ocean does not require that the waves are still to be more ocean-like. (Mooji)
I find in all the artists that I admire most a disturbing element, a distortion, giving evidence of a struggle... In great art, this conflict is hidden, it is unresolved. All that is bursting with energy is disturbing – not perfect. (Henry Moore)
Who does something, then he or she must do it precisely! (Muhammad)
All I plead with you is this: make love of your self perfect. (Nisargadatta)
There is something so perfect about the mountains and the lake and the trees... sometimes I want to tear it all to pieces. (Georgia O'Keeffe)
The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection. (Claes Oldenburg)
Shall I throw away the materials and time paying homage to the perfectionist – knowing that nothing is ever perfect and also knowing that redoing yesterday is not always proceeding to tomorrow's discovery? What an eternal debate! (oliver)
Letting go of the need for perfection releases a burst of energy - and guess what - you may accidentally do a good job. (Anna Olson)
The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection. (George Orwell)
The perfectionist is another name for someone who is getting ready to become mad. (Osho)
We adore perfection because we can't have it; it would disgust us if we had it. Perfect is inhuman, because human is imperfect. (Fernando Pessoa)
Be content with nothing less than perfection. (Walter J. Phillips)
It's always necessary to seek for perfection. Obviously, for us, this word no longer has the same meaning. To me, it means: from one canvas to the next, always go further, further... (Pablo Picasso)
You want to know how to paint a perfect painting? It's easy. Make yourself perfect and then just paint naturally. (Robert M. Pirsig)
It is absurd to look for perfection. (Camille Pissarro)
Everything has to be perfect in order not to break the spell. (Daniel Plante)
Perfection is terrible; it cannot have children. (Sylvia Plath)
Cut away all that is excessive, straighten all that is crooked, bring light to all that is overcast, labour to make all one glow of beauty and never cease chiselling your statue, until there shall shine out on you from it the godlike splendour of virtue, until you shall see the perfect goodness surely established in the stainless shrine... (Plotinus)
I have no faith in human perfectability. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active - not more happy - nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago. (Edgar Allan Poe)
Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see, / Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er shall be. (Alexander Pope)
Perfectionism is slow death. (Hugh Prather)
Living in an age of advertisement, we are perpetually disillusioned. The perfect life is spread before us every day, but it changes and withers at a touch. (Joseph Priestley)
A beautiful thing is never perfect. (proverb)
Were I to await perfection, my book would never be finished. (Chinese proverb)
Even imperfection itself may have its ideal or perfect state. (Thomas de Quincey)
The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself. (Anna Quindlen)
I wanted a perfect ending... Now, I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle and end. (Gilda Radner)
Artists who approach perfection do not have many ideas. (Odilon Redon)
When I record an album I'm trying to get as close as possible to that perfect moment. (Lou Reed)
Regularity, order, desire for perfection destroy art. Irregularity is the basis of all art. (Pierre-Auguste Renoir)
-from The Society of the Irregularists, 1884...
One can thus state, without fear of being wrong, that every truly artistic production has been conceived and executed according to the principle of irregularity. (Pierre-Auguste Renoir)
Art in its perfection is not ostentatious; it lies hid and works its effect, itself unseen. (Sir Joshua Reynolds)
-b.1594 d.1658...
Since natural objects, due to the imperfection of their material, are full of defects, it is the unique aim of painting to bring them back to their first state, as they were when made by the immortal creator. (Carlo Ridolfi)
I'm not perfect... But I'm enough. (Carl Rogers)
One senses, in all autobiography, a straining toward perfection, perfection of a kind that connects the individual with a cosmic pattern which, because it is perfect in itself, verifies that individuals own potential perfection. (Roger Rosenblatt)
I strive for perfection, but seldom reach it. Which, I believe, is the way for an artist to work. The day I reach perfection is the day I will never paint again. (Rick Rotante)
My father, a wise and artistic man, once told me, 'Nothing in this world is perfect - the trick is not to reach perfection, but to get so close to perfect that no one can tell the difference.' (Mark A. Rue)
There is no worse sickness for the soul, O you who are proud, than this pretense of perfection. The heart and eyes must bleed a lot before self-complacency falls away. (Rumi)
No good work whatever can be perfect, and the demand for perfection is always a sign of a misunderstanding of the ends of art. (John Ruskin)
It is in this power of saying everything, and yet saying nothing too plainly, that the perfection of art consists. (John Ruskin)
Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
No matter how much you polish it, it's still just an apple. (Peter Salwen)
We are chasing perfection rather than allowing our natural perfection to flow from us... (Sandra Sauer)
People throw away what they could have by insisting on perfection, which they cannot have, and looking for it where they will never find it. (Edith Schaeffer)
Measure not by the scale of perfection the meager product of reality. (Johann Friedrich von Schiller)
Sometimes perfect is good enough; sometimes good enough is perfect. (Peter Senesac)
Every thing that grows / Holds in perfection but a little moment. (William Shakespeare)
For adaptive perfectionists, the divide between their high standards and actual performance may serve as a motivator. But for maladaptive perfectionists, that gulf becomes insurmountable, creating anxiety and self-doubt that can be demotivating. (Sue Shellenbarger)
My goal is to perfect my style, but if I got to the point where I thought my work was perfect, that would be the end. (Mian Situ)
And what do I mean by the word 'perfection'? That I shall not try to explain but only say, 'Perfection makes me laugh.' Not cynically, I hasten to add, 'With joy.' (Susan Sontag)
Aim at perfection in everything, though in most things it is unattainable. However, they who aim at it, and persevere, will come much nearer to it than those whose laziness and despondency make them give it up as unattainable. (Philip Dormer Stanhope)
I call 'crystallization' that action of the mind that discovers fresh perfections in its beloved at every turn of events. (Stendhal)
Finality is death. Perfection is finality. Nothing is perfect. There are lumps in it. (James Stephens, author)
The imperfect is our paradise. (Wallace Stevens)
My fabulous architect godfather and mentor told me once that striving toward a goal - or perfection - gives one focus and direction, which is a helluva lot better than chasing one's tail. (Catherine Stock)
Nothing we see or hear is perfect. But right there in the imperfection is perfect reality. (Shunryu Suzuki)
Night, a more perfect day. (Arthur Symons)
The potentiality of perfection outweighs actual contradictions... Existence in itself is here to prove that it cannot be an evil. (Rabindranath Tagore)
He who improvises can never make a perfect line of poetry. (Titian)
If you look for perfection, you'll never be content. (Leo Tolstoy)
There is beauty and humility in imperfection. (Guillermo del Toro)
Being happy doesn't mean everything's perfect. It means you've decided to see beyond the imperfections. (Author unknown)
-on stone tablet in Mexico...
Grace without perfection is more preferred than perfection without grace. (Author unknown)
The world is a puzzle and we're two pieces that fit perfectly together. (Author unknown)
Perfectionism can create excellent results, but the cost of getting there can cause stress. So instead of striving for perfection, I aim for excellence in all I do. (Author unknown)
Art occurs between the measurements. (Author unknown)
Perfectionism is the enemy of creation, as extreme self-solicitude is the enemy of well-being. (John Updike)
Good work is not synonymous with perfect work. 'Art is human; error is human; ergo, art is error.' Inevitably our work will be flawed and looking for perfections is flawed. (Janet Vanderhoof)
He only moves toward the perfection of his art whose criticism surpasses his achievement. (Leonardo da Vinci)
Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time. (Voltaire)
Perfect is the enemy of good. (Voltaire)
My paintings are both a proof and a reminder that nothing in this world has ever been perfect or perfect enough. (Milos Vujasinovic)
In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they're still beautiful. (Alice Walker)
It's almost like the better we get, the worse we think we are. This is healthy - it keeps us pushing. (Clint Watson)
The pursuit of perfection means not just enthusiasm for doing a topnotch job in important things, it means attention to detail and an itch to innovate and improve in whatever we have to do. It means to be dissatisfied with the status quo. (Thomas J. Watson, Jr.)
A work of art has an author, and yet, when it is perfect, it has something which is essentially anonymous about it. (Simone Weil)
Perfect may be taken out of the dictionary. (Michael Wicket)
It is through art, and through art only, that we can realise our perfection. (Oscar Wilde)
I have always been more interested in creating a character that contains something crippled. I think nearly all of us have some kind of defect. (Tennessee Williams)
All art is in the last analysis an endeavor to condense as out of the flying vapor of the world an image of human perfection, and for its own and not for the art's sake. (William Butler Yeats)
Adopt the standard of perfection, because it is a perfect universe. (Maharishi Mahesh Yogi)
-b.AD 61 d.AD 112, Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus...
Moderate skill in several arts is to be preferred where one cannot attain to perfection in any. (Pliny the Younger)
What is creative is the seeking of perfection - and not attaining it. (Semir Zeki)
Perfection is such a nuisance that I often regret having cured myself of using tobacco. (Emile Zola)
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