Quotes about Excellence

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. ~ Aristotle Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work. ~ Aristotle

Man's work as Man is accomplished by virtue of Practical Wisdom and Moral Virtue, the latter giving the right aim and direction, the former the right means to its attainment;

Hence while in respect of its substance and the definition that states what it really is in essence virtue is the observance of the mean, in point of excellence and rightness it is an extreme.

Excellence is not an act, but habit.

To feel or act towards the right person to the right extent at the right time for the right reason in the right way - is not easy, and it is not everyone that can do it, hence to do these things well is a rare, laudable and fine achievement.

As, in the serious style, Homer is pre-eminent among poets, for he alone combined dramatic form with excellence of imitation, so he too first laid down the main lines of Comedy, by dramatising the ludicrous instead of writing personal satire.

Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and pursuit, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason is the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim.

Happiness is the exercise of talent, along the lines of excellence.

But we must not follow those who advise us…being mortal, [to think] of mortal things, but must, so far as we can, make ourselves immortal, and strain every nerve to live in accordance with the best thing in us; for even if it be small in bulk, much more does it in power and worth surpass everything.

Ability can take you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there

O fairest of creation! last and best of all God's works! creature in whom excell'd whatever can to sight or thought be form'd, Holy, divine, good, amiable, or sweet! How art thou lost, how on a sudden lost, Defac'd, deflower'd, and now to Death devote?

Accuse not nature, she hath done her part do thou but thine, and be not diffident of wisdom, she deserts thee not, if thou dismiss not her, when most thou needest her nigh, by attributing overmuch to things less excellent, as thou thyself perceivest.