Perfectionism Quotes

“Your memories of perfect moments are memories of moments in which you were most present.”
― Katherine Morgan Schafler, The Perfectionist's Guide to Losing Control: A Path to Peace and Power

“You desperately want all the right tools because you want to mother 'the right way'. But motherhood is messy, and raw, and nuanced, and requires things a baby registry could never provide: surrender, and trust, and dependence on the Lord Almighty to fuel you with grace, with perseverance, with steadfast love, with sacrificial willingness to get up the next morning with your eyes half shut and do it all over again. That is what you need to mother.”
― Ashlee Gadd, Create Anyway: The Joy of Pursuing Creativity in the Margins of Motherhood

“One of the most powerful paths to personal peace is learning to live outside of the persistent push from the voice of perfectionism.”
― Curtis Tyrone Jones, Giants At Play: Finding Wisdom, Courage, And Acceptance To Encounter Your Destiny

“This isn't a journey of you becoming the perfect version of yourself; that's what cults are built on.

This is the journey about receiving the gift of yourself - the beautiful, vulnerable you... that you're the kind of person who is relatable, touchable, and in solidarity with others on the journey of life.”
― Scott Erickson, Say Yes: Discover the Surprising Life Beyond the Death of a Dream

“Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running
from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up
on love and belonging and joy—the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.”
― Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection

“We want things to go perfectly, so we tell ourselves that we'll get started once the conditions are right...it'd be better to focus on making do with how things actually are...”
― Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living

“Perfectionism crushes the creative spirit, whereas excellence refines it.”
― Benjamin Batarseh

“Nothing in this world is perfect. It may be a cliché but it’s true. That’s why the average person yearns for perfection. But…is perfection really desirable? I think not. It’s empty…stagnant. Perfection is a dead end. It leaves no room for innovation or improvement…or for wisdom or talent. Do you understand? For scientists perfection means…despair. Be greater than all that’s come before…but…never be perfect. Scientists always struggle with that contradiction…but they must also find pleasure in it.”
― Tite Kubo, Bleach―ブリーチ― 35 [Burīchi 35]

“Don’t let your need for control keep you from creating and sharing. The longer you try to make something perfect, the longer you’ll be hiding yourself from not only the world but the real you. And what a shame that would be.”
― Anthony Meindl, Unstuck: A Life Manual On How To Be More Creative, Overcome Your Obstacles, and Get Shit Done

“Speed and consistency are far more powerful than perfection.”
― Dax Bamania

“You're not here to be perfect or to set a good example or to please anyone. You were born to love & enjoy your ordinary, peculiar, inconsistent, good-enough self.”
― Allyson Dinneen, Notes From Your Therapist: Essential Insights from Mental Health Therapy on Emotional Well-Being and Nurturing Relationships

“On the outside, radical obedience and perfectionism look similar: a commitment to pursuing our work with excellence. On the inside, though, the motivations are wildly different. Perfectionism seeks to please man, but radical obedience seeks to please God.

Perfectionism is rooted in anxiety, frustration, and endless striv-ing. Radical obedience is rooted in peace, joy, and endless surrender.
Perfectionism chokes, paralyzes, and prevents us from even starting.
Radical obedience launches, spurs, and propels us forward.”
― Ashlee Gadd, Create Anyway: The Joy of Pursuing Creativity in the Margins of Motherhood

“No matter how hard I try, some days are just not going to be an A-game day. But I can certainly make it the best B-game day of all time.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“She'd been a good girl all her life, played by her rules, lived by the Golden Rule, and what had it gotten her?”
― Susan Kraus, Fall From Grace

“To be better than average, the rules are to know your strengths and grow them, understand yourself deeply and cover the basics with your other responsibilities or outsource them so they don’t become liabilities. No one is asking for perfection here. The key is to be strategic with your time management.”
― Katherine Ann Byam, Do What Matters: The Purpose Driven Career Transition Guide: Infusing the principles of sustainability and purpose into any career and transition.

“Perfectionism – that nagging belief that nothing you do will be good enough – can stop you in your tracks and steal your dreams.”
― Eleanor Brownn

“The greatest tragedy of our age is
that we are born in a unique way
yet feel that we have to die
as a perfect copy of the world.”
― Laura Chouette

“No project will go perfectly, nor will the end result be perfect, but as long as you had fun, that’s what matters most.”
― Samantha Segal, Art Exercises for Improvement

“I can hardly let the fear of my expectations falling short, the idea of people letting me down, dictate how we live around here.”
― Karole Cozzo, How to Say I Love You Out Loud

“When family, school & society put so much emphasis on being perfect, strong, happy & well-adjusted--no surprise we conclude we have to be all those things to be loved. And grow up never knowing that to be vulnerable, messy, human is lovable.”
― Allyson Dinneen, Notes From Your Therapist: Essential Insights from Mental Health Therapy on Emotional Well-Being and Nurturing Relationships

“Rest @ the end, not in the middLe.”
― Kobe Bryant

“Next time you’re stuck in the self-editing-doom-loop before you even reach a significant milestone, just remember that it takes the unorganized parts to get to the organized part.”
― Richie Norton

“I’ve learned that people think their “self” is the composition of the walls they hide behind. What are you hiding behind? Have you become the things you use to hide?”
― Richie Norton

“Perfectionists will choose activities that are low risk that they can do well right now instead of working on big projects because they will require more time and attention to do them right—saving them for later.”
― Richie Norton, Anti-Time Management: Reclaim Your Time and Revolutionize Your Results with the Power of Time Tipping

“It is time to ditch perfectionism and go for the “let’s do this”..!”
― HUMAIRA SYED, 55 Habits for Mindset Mastery: A Perfect Collection of Everyday Simple HABITS to Change Your Life Forever

“We are not subjected to Death, Murder, Killing, Tragedy, Agony nor Miseries of Hells", not Bone folded Fools". We fold , Unfold and Stretches .”
― Ben Jr Grey

“The hardest questions to face but the easiest to answer was why I didn't already feel valuable. When the one person who was supposed to love me unconditionally told me over and over that I was a worthless, ungrateful punk, it became hard to ever truly believe that I was good enough...And now I was trying to fill the void this left inside me with knowledge, and therefore value. Over the years I'd told myself that if I could talk to enough people and make the ideal impression enough times, they would like me. My credentials and skills, and ultimately my knowledge, would make me worth liking. And if enough people liked me, I would matter. I'd be worth something.”
― Zachary Wood, Uncensored

“You ask me, is there a perfect soul!
I say, imperfect souls chase perfection,
perfect souls wield their imperfection
as their greatest strength.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Aşk Mafia: Armor of The World

“You may wonder if such a thing as a perfect response exists. The answer is yes and no. A perfect response exists only as a best possible response at a given time, place and circumstance.”
― Kathirasan K, Mindfulness-Based Leadership: The Art of Being a Leader - Not Becoming One

“I remind myself, "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good." (Cribbed from Voltaire.) A twenty-minute walk that I do is better than the four-mile run that I don't do. The imperfect book that gets published is better than the perfect book that never leaves my computer. The dinner party of take-out Chinese food is better than the elegant dinner that I never host.”
― Gretchen Rubin, Happier at Home: Kiss More, Jump More, Abandon a Project, Read Samuel Johnson, and My Other Experiments in the Practice of Everyday Life