Perfectionism Quotes

“Oh my God, what if you wake up some day, and you’re 65, or 75, and you never got your memoir or novel written; or you didn’t go swimming in warm pools and oceans all those years because your thighs were jiggly and you had a nice big comfortable tummy; or you were just so strung out on perfectionism and people-pleasing that you forgot to have a big juicy creative life, of imagination and radical silliness and staring off into space like when you were a kid? It’s going to break your heart. Don’t let this happen.”
― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

“I am continuously struck by how frequently the various thought processes of the inner critic trigger overwhelming emotional flashbacks. This is because the PTSD-derived inner critic weds shame and self-hate about imperfection to fear of abandonment, and mercilessly drive the psyche with the entwined serpents of perfectionism and endangerment. Recovering individuals must learn to recognize, confront and disidentify from the many inner critic processes that tumble them back in emotional time to the awful feelings of overwhelming fear, self-hate, hopelessness and self-disgust that were part and parcel of their original childhood abandonment.”
― Pete Walker

“There is often no line between perfection and evil.”
― Ken Liu, The Grace of Kings

“Done is better than perfect if perfect ain't done.”
― Eric Thomas

“Because children take everything personally, they believe that if they are being mistreated, it's because they haven't been “good enough.” Being good as an adult makes them believe, incorrectly, that they have some control in life. They think that they will be rewarded for their goodness and that it will protect them from harm.”
― Marcia Sirota

“Don't waste your whole lifetime waiting for the perfect life when there's a perfectly good one within and right in front of you.”
― Rasheed Ogunlaru

“There is no way to genuinely, powerfully, truly love yourself while crafting a mask of perfection.”
― Vironika Tugaleva

“There is no way to genuinely, powerfully, truly love yourself while crafting a mask of perfection. I know, you know, we all know—it's hard to let your pimples and your flaws be seen. It's hard to stumble and bumble. It's hard to not know the right things to do or say. It's hard to not look like TV.

Sometimes, it's really hard for me to be the awkward mess that I am when I'm authentic, instead of having runway authenticity—all natural, but flawless. But every time I allow that to be okay, not just around myself but around others—I affirm something to myself. I affirm, to myself more than anyone else, that I am lovable and acceptable unconditionally. I affirm that it's okay to take on and take in all the flavours and hues of human experience, and not just the ones that are acceptable in this culture, in this time, in this place.

And that kind of acceptance, that kind of love—that's the kind of love that creates miracles. That's the kind of love I really need. That's the kind of love that makes approval taste like cardboard.”
― Vironika Tugaleva

“Like the bronze statue of the Angel of the Waters, those who pursue perfection find themselves paralysed by the possibility of flaw, fault or failure.”
― Jamie Le Fay, Beginnings

“There is no greater suffering than constantly measuring yourself and coming up short, except perhaps the realization that your suffering is hurting others. But where do we learn these things? Because, really, they are learned. We don't come crying out of the womb because of our birth weight or because we have no money in this brand new world. We learn to measure and we learn to attach our self-worth to those measurements.

These patterns we're stuck in aren't just painful for us, they're also distracting us. Every day, the gap between rich and poor grows while the people of developed societies do nothing, because we are too busy worrying about looking good. We're distracted, but not because we've chosen to be. Being distracted by our illusory inadequacy keeps us from changing the world. And believe me, we all have the power to change the world. If we only make the time. If we only free some head space.

If you can't learn to love yourself for yourself (and how could you with such a paradoxical motivation?)... then do it for us. Do it for the world. We need you. We need your mind. We need your attention. We need your thoughts.

Change your focus, and you will (not can, but will) change the world. You already matter. You just have to realize it for yourself.”
― Vironika Tugaleva

“Alexander was in the grip of a passion for perfection. He was not aware of how closely, how perilously, perfectionism and fanaticism are related.”
― Tove Jansson, The Woman Who Borrowed Memories: Selected Stories

“Perfection is born of imperfection.”
― Richie Norton

“The most successful are not the most perfect, but the imperfect who dare to believe that they can despite the damning verdict.”
― Bangambiki Habyarimana, Pearls Of Eternity

“The myth of self-sufficiency demands optimism without end, downplays life’s challenges, and shames us when, inevitably, we fall short.”
― Ashton Applewhite, This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism

“What if you wake up some day, and you’re 65… and you were just so strung out on perfectionism and people-pleasing that you forgot to have a big juicy creative life?”
― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

“Perfect is the enemy of done.”
― Catherine Carrigan

“I am not Perfect, but I am a Limited Edition”
― Cecil Pratt

“I do think imperfection is underrated”
― Helena Bonham Carter

“An entrepreneur is not deterred by his lack of perfection, he knows no one else is”
― Bangambiki Habyarimana, Pearls Of Eternity

“Productivity is about looking forward. Looking back too much, or trying to be too much of a perfectionist, can destroy that productivity. So keep going. Keep creating. Keep building.”
― Audrey Moralez

“Perfection is not to be attained, but to be pursued infinitely.”
― Abhijit Naskar

“When we relate to ourselves with loving kindness, perfectionism naturally drops away.”
― Sharon Salzberg

“I leave perfection for others. Anyone that tells you to get it right the first time isn't doing enough. Speed is the new big! [...] I leave perfection to the perfectionist; I, instead have elected to produce.”
― Grand Cardone

“It does not need to be perfect - or technically correct - to be magic”
― Rasheed Ogunlaru

“إن تعشّق الكمال قد ينتهي إلى حسن الحديث عنه، وقد يكتفي عشاقه بسرد تفاصيل دقيقة من مسائله وقضاياه، ثم يطوى الأمر كله دون نتيجة فعالة”
― محمد الغزالي - Muhammad al-Ghazali, جدد حياتك

“Perfection is an opinion not a fact.”
― Julian Ross Quintero

“Perfection is fragile; interacting with something that seems perfect puts it in peril.”
― Sharon Salzberg, Real Love: The Art of Mindful Connection

“Clinging to our ideas of perfection isolates us from life and is a barrier.”
― Sharon Salzberg, Real Love: The Art of Mindful Connection

“The wholesome pursuit of excellence feels quite different from perfectionism.”
― Sharon Salzberg, Real Love: The Art of Mindful Connection

“Коля... всегда критиковал бесстрастно, жестоко и сам ничего не писал - он боялся написать плохо.
Рувим Исаевич Фраерман "Дикая собака динго, или Повесть о первой любви”
― Рувим Исаевич Фраерман, Повести нашего детства