48 Observations on mediocrity:
A best-seller is the gilded tomb of a mediocre talent.
-Logan
Pearsall Smith
A man attains an elevated position only when his mediocrity prevents him
from being a threat to others. And for this reason a democracy is never
governed by the most competent, but rather by those whose insignificance
will not jeopardize anyone else's self-esteem.
-Niccolò Machiavelli
A mediocre idea that generates enthusiasm will go further than a great
idea that inspires no one.
-Mary Kay Ash
A most mediocre person can be the object of a love which is wild,
extravagant, and beautiful as the poison lilies of the swamp.
-Carson
McCullers
Caricature is the tribute that mediocrity pays to genius.
-Oscar
Wilde
Don't rationalize mediocrity.
-George W. Miller
Each time a mediocre singer performs, he is saying, in effect, 'This is
good enough for you.' The audience, thrust into that familiar American
mood of knowing something is wrong but not knowing what it is,
unconsciously absorbs the insult and projects it back onto the mediocre
performer in the form of inattention, rudeness and noise.
-Florence
King
Equal rights for the sexes will be achieved when mediocre women occupy
high positions.
-Francois Giroud
Getting ahead in a difficult profession requires avid faith in yourself.
That is why some people with mediocre talent, but with great inner
drive, go much further than people with vastly superior talent.
-Sophia
Loren
Good behavior is the last refuge of mediocrity.
-Henry Haskins
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre
minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who
refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to
express his opinions courageously and honestly.
-Albert Einstein
In the republic of mediocrity genius is dangerous.
-Robert G.
Ingersoll
In this country we encourage 'creativity' among the mediocre, but real
bursting creativity appalls us. We put it down as undisciplined, as
somehow 'too much.'
-Pauline Kael
Indifference is the revenge the world takes on mediocrities.
-Oscar
Wilde
It is cruel to discover one's mediocrity only when it is too late.
-W.
Somerset Maugham
It's disheartening to know that you live in a country that's just
teeming with semi-literate, mediocre psychos.
-Henry Rollins
Jealousy is the tribute mediocrity pays to genius.
-Fulton J. Sheen
Media, the plural of mediocrity.
-Jimmy Breslin
Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly
recognizes genius.
-Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Mediocrity requires aloofness to preserve its dignity.
-Charles G.
Dawes
Mediocrity: It takes a lot less time and most people won't notice the
difference until it's too late.
-Larry Kersten, PhD
Moderation has been made a virtue in order to curb the ambition of the
great, and also to console those who are mediocre in either fortune or
merit.
-Francois de la Rochefoucauld
Most of our pocket wisdom is conceived for the use of mediocre people,
to discourage them from ambitious attempts, and generally console them
in their mediocrity.
-Robert Louis Stevenson
My success is the result of not being satisfied with mediocrity, and in
making the most of my opportunities.
-Milton S. Hershey
No, I'm not interested in developing a powerful brain. All I'm after is
just a mediocre brain, something like the President of the American
Telephone and Telegraph Company.
-Alan Touring
Often the difference between a successful marriage and a mediocre one
consists of leaving about three or four things a day unsaid.
-Harland
Miller
Only ambitious nonentities and hearty mediocrities exhibit their rough
drafts. It is like passing around samples of one's sputum.
-Vladimir
Nabokov
Only the mediocre are always at their best.
-Jean Giraudoux
People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with
mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents.
-Andrew
Carnegie
Politicians fascinate because they constitute such a paradox; they are
an elite that accomplishes mediocrity for the public good.
-George
F. Will
Possibly the only dismaying aspect of excellence is that it makes living
in a world of mediocrity an ongoing prospect of a living Hell.
-Harlan
Ellison
Pumpkin pie is the epitome of mediocrity. The best pumpkin pie you ever
ate isn't that much better than the worst.
-Garrison Keillor
Reward excellent failures. Punish mediocre successes.
-Tom Peters
Sometimes I worry about being a success in a mediocre world.
-Jane
Wagner
The business world worships mediocrity. Officially we revere free
enterprise, initiative and individuality. Unofficially we fear it.
-George
Lois
The general tendency of things throughout the world is to render
mediocrity the ascendant power among mankind.
-John Stuart Mill
The mediocrity of everything in the great world of today is simply
appalling. We live in intellectual slums.
-George Santayana
The tendency of democracies is, in all things, to mediocrity.
-James
Fenimore Cooper
The word media is plural for mediocre.
-René Saguisag
Time is the friend of the wonderful business, the enemy of the mediocre.
-Warren
Buffett
Unpretending mediocrity is good, and genius is glorious; but a weak
flavor of genius in an essentially common person is detestable . It
spoils the grand neutrality of a commonplace character, as the rinsings
of an unwashed wine-glass spoil a draught of fair water.
-Oliver
Wendell Holmes, Sr.
We are in danger of developing a cult of the Common Man, which means a
cult of mediocrity.
-Herbert Hoover
We mistrust anything that too strongly challenges our ideal of
mediocrity.
-Robertson Davies
What the crowd requires is mediocrity of the highest order.
-Auguste
Preault
Why create mediocrity when you can copy genius?
-Unattributed
Women want mediocre men, and men are working hard to become as mediocre
as possible.
-Margaret Mead
You have the army of mediocrities followed by the multitude of fools. As
the mediocrities and the fools always form the immense majority, it is
impossible for them to elect an intelligent government.
-Guy de
Maupassant
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