Mediocrity Quotes

Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius. (Arthur Conan Doyle)
Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them. View quote
Joseph Heller
Good behavior is the last refuge of mediocrity. View quote
Henry S. Haskins
People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents. View quote
Andrew Carnegie
One would like to be grand and heroic, if one could; but if not, why try at all? One wants to be very something, very great, very heroic; or if not that, then at least very stylish and very fashionable. It is this everlasting mediocrity that bores me. View quote
Harriet Beecher Stowe
It is cruel to discover one's mediocrity only when it is too late. It does not improve the temper. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
Great artists are people who find the way to be themselves in their art. Any sort of pretension induces mediocrity in art and life alike. View quote
Margot Fonteyn
Virtue is defined to be mediocrity, of which either extreme is vice. View quote
Rutherford B. Hayes
In the republic of mediocrity, genius is dangerous. View quote
Robert G. Ingersoll
The only sin is mediocrity. View quote
Martha Graham
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)
There are certain things in which mediocrity is intolerable: poetry, music, painting, public eloquence. View quote
Jean de La Bruyère
Women who are either indisputably beautiful, or indisputably ugly, are best flattered upon the score of their understandings but those who are in a state of mediocrity are best flattered upon their beauty, or at least their graces for every woman who is not absolutely ugly, thinks herself handsome. View quote
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Solitude, the safeguard of mediocrity, is to genius the stern friend. View quote
Ralph Waldo Emerson
There is a real magic in enthusiasm. It spells the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment. View quote
Norman Vincent Peale
Excellence is a better teacher than mediocrity. The lessons of the ordinary are everywhere. Truly profound and original insights are to be found only in studying the exemplary. View quote
Warren Bennis
Mediocrity can talk, but it is for genius to observe. View quote
Benjamin Disraeli
Jealousy is the tribute mediocrity pays to genius. View quote
Fulton J. Sheen
Mediocrity in politics is not to be despised. Greatness is not needed. View quote
Hans Magnus Enzensberger
A talent somewhat above mediocrity, shrewd and not too sensitive, is more likely to rise in the world than genius. View quote
Charles Cooley
Mediocrity would always win by force of numbers, but it would win only more mediocrity. (Ellen Glasgow)
Being famous is not something that would make me feel successful - unless one was striving for mediocrity. View quote
William Hurt
A well proportioned mind is one which shows no particular bias one of which we may safely say that it will never cause its owner to be confined as a madman, tortured as a heretic, or crucified as a blasphemer. Also, on the other hand, that it will never cause him to be applauded as a prophet, revered as a priest, or exalted as a king. Its usual blessings are happiness and mediocrity. View quote
Thomas Hardy
Mediocrity is like a spot on your shirt, it never comes off. View quote
Haruki Murakami
Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity. View quote
Colin Powell