170+ Perfection Quotes to Inspire Excellence

Each of the following positive perfection quotes is overflowing with wisdom, life lessons, and knowledge. All you need is a couple of minutes out of your day, and you can make different or better choices depending on what you learn.

Reading powerful quotes about striving for perfection can help you change your perspective. They encompass nearly every aspect that makes up our day-to-day lives.

Thanks to all the distractions around us today, it’s easy to lose focus of what really matters in our lives. Sometimes all we need a reminder. To help you make the most of your life, below is our collection of inspirational, wise, and thought-provoking perfection quotes:

Best Perfection Quotes

Don’t worry about getting perfect, just keep getting better. Frank Peretti

We curate our lives around this perceived sense of perfection because we get rewarded in these short term signals: Hearts, likes, thumbs up. We conflate that with value, and we conflate it with truth, and instead, what it really is is fake, brittle popularity that’s short term and leaves you even more vacant and empty before you did it. Chamath Palihapitiya

Strive for continuous improvement, instead of perfection. Kim Collins

Perfection is not a polished thing. It is often simply something that is sincerely meant. Mature Jenny

Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain it in anything. Gustave Flaubert

Nothing is permanently perfect. But there are perfect moments and the will to choose what will bring about more perfect moments. Mary Balogh

It’s not about perfection; it’s about the joy of striving. Thomas Keller

Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence. Vince Lombardi

Everything, if you could only see it clearly enough, like this, is beautiful and complete. Everything has its own perfection. Joan Lindsay

Everything is perfect in the universe – even your desire to improve it. Wayne Dyer

Only a fool pursues perfection, the wise pursues self-correction. Abhijit Naskar

The perfection of art is to conceal art. Quintilian

Perfection is overrated. Let good be good enough. Andi Willis

Love is the bond of perfection. John Winthrop

Perfect is a dream that you wake up from and spend forever trying to remember. Joseph Eastwood

Perfection is the child of time. Joseph Hall

All your perfect imperfections John Legend

Expecting perfection can only lead to disappointment. Besides, it’s the flaws that give a person character. That’s where the beauty hides. Tessa Bailey

When you strive for perfection, you compare different versions of what could be instead of being present with what is. Perfectionism is an attempt to inhabit an imaginary world in order to avoid experiencing the world in which you live. Gary Zukav

To appreciate life’s small moments, it helps to have a sense the whole can never be made perfect. Alain de Botton

I’m a perfectionist. Sometimes I have to remind myself that it’s okay if there are flaws here and there. Tyra Banks

I am not a perfectionist. Perfection doesn’t exist in real life. It’s a wrong title for me. Aamir Khan

Perfection is such a nuisance that I often regret having cured myself of using tobacco. Émile Zola

One is always considered mad when one perfects something that others cannot grasp. Ed Wood

Perfection consists not in doing extraordinary things, but in doing ordinary things extraordinarily well. Marie Angelique Arnauld

top perfection quotes

Redemption is not perfection. The redeemed must realize their imperfections. John Piper

The closest to perfection a person ever comes is when he fills out a job application form. Stanley J. Randall

To feel much for others and little for ourselves; to restrain our selfishness and exercise our benevolent affections, constitute the perfection of human nature. Adam Smith

Perfection is overrated, boring. It’s the imperfections-the vulnerabilities, the weaknesses, the human elements-that make us who we are, that make us real, beautiful…necessary. Guy Harrison

Whoever tries to imagine perfection simply reveals his own emptiness. George Orwell

Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect. Vince Lombardi

You’re not looking for perfection in your partner. Perfection is all about the ego. With soulmate love, you know that true love is what happens when disappointment sets in – and you’re willing to deal maturely with these disappointments. Karen Salmansohn

Be content with nothing less than perfection. Walter J. Phillips

Perfection and the horizon: things that you should chase but will never catch. Colin Wright

I don’t think perfect is interesting. I think what makes life exciting is the imperfections. Mary Frann

Only in grammar can you be more than perfect. William Safire

Just because nobody complains doesn’t mean all parachutes are perfect. Benny Hill

If there was nothing wrong in the world there wouldn’t be anything for us to do. George Bernard Shaw

Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it. Salvador Dali

The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection. George Orwell

These famous hard work quotes will uplift you and prepare you for what lies ahead.

Famous Perfection Quotes

A lot of people from my generation of music are so focused on playing things correctly or to perfection that they’re stuck in that safe place. Dave Grohl

Perfection is just an opinion. Julian Quintero

I think perfection is ugly. Somewhere in the things humans make, I want to see scars, failure, disorder, distortion. Yohji Yamamoto

This is the very perfection of a man, to find out his own imperfections. Saint Augustine

A minute of perfection was worth the effort. A moment was the most you could ever expect from perfection. Chuck Palahniuk

Perfectionism rarely begets perfection, or satisfaction – only disappointment. Ryan Holiday

The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself. Anna Quindlen

Done is better than perfect. Sheryl Sandberg

The world is not imperfect or slowly evolving along a path to perfection. No, it is perfect at every moment, every sin already carries grace in it. Herman Hesse

When you aim for perfection, you discover it’s a moving target. George Fisher

Practice makes perfect, but nobody’s perfect, so why practice? Kurt Cobain

The greater the emphasis on perfection, the further it recedes Haridas Chaudhuri

There is a very thin line between wisely striving for your best and foolishly striving for perfection. Mokokoma Mokhonoana

And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good. John Steinbeck

Perfection is terrible; it cannot have children. Sylvia Plath

A pursuit for perfection is the most leading cause of procrastination in artists. Neeraj Agnihotri

They say that nobody is perfect. Then they tell you practice makes perfect. I wish they’d make up their minds. Winston Churchill

Perfection is boring. If a face doesn’t have mistakes, it’s nothing. Kevyn Aucoin

Great sculptors and artists spend countless hours perfecting their talents. They don’t pick up a chisel or a brush and palette, expecting immediate perfection. They understand that they will make many errors as they learn, but they start with the basics, the key fundamentals first. Joseph B. Wirthlin

Confusion of goals and perfection of means seems, in my opinion, to characterize our age. Albert Einstein

Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time. Voltaire

Perfection is impossible; just strive to do your best. Angela Watson

Perfection is a job complete, praise given, prayer heard. It can be kindness shown, thanks offered up. Mature Jenny

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle. Michelangelo

When something has been perfect, there is a tendency to try hard to repeat it. Edna O’Brien

positive perfection quotes

Perfectionism means that you try not to leave so much mess to clean up. But clutter and mess show us that life is being lived. Anne Lamott

You know how you’re always trying to get things to come out perfect in art because it’s real difficult in life. Woody Allen

The true perfection of man lies not in what man has, but in what man is. Oscar Wilde

Nobody’s perfect. We’re all just one step up from the beasts and one step down from the angels. Jeannette Walls

We never taste happiness in perfection, our most fortunate successes are mixed with sadness. Pierre Corneille

He perfected the art of anonymity,

When you stop expecting people to be perfect, you can like them for who they are. Donald Miller

He that will have a perfect brother must resign himself to remain brother-less. Italian Proverb

Music when healthy, is the teacher of perfect order, and when depraved, the teacher of perfect disorder. John Ruskin

Few good friends, one great partner, and something I love to do every day, that’s the idea of my little perfect life. Sarvesh Jain

People throw away what they could have by insisting on perfection, which they cannot have, and looking for it where they will never find it. Edith Schaeffer

Our erected wit maketh us to know what perfection is. Philip Sidney

Perfection irritates as well as it attracts, in fiction as in life. Louis Auchincloss

They say that nobody is perfect. Then they tell you practice makes perfect. I wish they’d make up their minds. Wilt Chamberlain

We ruin what we have by trying to make it perfect. Enjoy the imperfectness. Sarvesh Jain

A small step of progression is a thousand times better than a delayed step of perfection. Perfectionism procrastinates and paralyzes progress. Tony Warrick

The question isn’t whether the world is perfect. The real question to consider is: If it were, would you still be in it? Eric Micha’el Leventhal

Perfection is the measure of heaven, and the wish to be perfect the measure of man. John Wolfgang Goethe

We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly. Sam Keen

Taking the time to look to beautiful never give up quotes can help keep the flame of positivity burning bright within your life.

Powerful Perfection Quotes

You don’t have to be perfect, just try to be kind. Perfection is inferior to kindness. Debasish Mridha

Perfectionism is the enemy of creation, as extreme self-solitude is the enemy of well-being. John Updike

Being perfect is overrated; Being better is what counts, especially if you do that everyday! Unknown

American women expect to find in their husbands a perfection that English women only hope to find in their butlers. W. Somerset Maugham

A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. Antoine de Saint-Exupery

If you look for perfection, you’ll never be content. Leo Tolstoy

Perfection has one grave defect: it is apt to be dull. W. Somerset Maugham

True love does not come by finding the perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly. Jason Jordan

If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word. Margaret Atwood

deep perfection quotes

Even the best needles are not sharp at both ends. Chinese Proverb

The real goal is to create something that evokes emotion, not to be perfect. Drasen

This is the very perfection of a man, to find out his own imperfections. Augustine of Hippo

And arrived nowhere from nowhere. Dejan Stojanovic

Don’t let perfect be the enemy of the good.

Forever does not imply perfection; rather, it refers to long-term happiness that allows us to strive to be a better person every day. Shaa Zainol

In trying to be perfect,

There is desire in the perfect, beauty in the imperfect. Thus I lust over the flawless, and fall amorously forceless to the flawed. Ilyas Kassam

Perfection itself is imperfection. Vladimir Horowitz

There are two kinds of perfect: The one you can never achieve, and the other, by just being yourself. Lauren King

The wise strive for their best. The foolish strive for perfection. Mokokoma Mokhonoana

True perfection has to be imperfect. I know that sounds foolish, but it’s true. Noel Gallagher

There is still that singular perfection, and it’s perfect in part because it seemed, at the time, so clearly to promise more. Michael Cunningham

There would be no need for love if perfection were possible. Love arises from our imperfection, from our being different and always in need of the forgiveness, encouragement and that missing half of ourselves that we are searching for, as the Greek myth tells us, in order to complete ourselves. Eugene Kennedy

Perfection is what we discover in each other, what we see reflected back. And if perfection eludes us, that doesn’t matter. For what we have within the moment is enough. Mature Jenny

Perfection is not a destination; it’s a never-ending process…Enjoy! Jim Bouchard

I think what makes people fascinating is conflict, it’s drama, it’s the human condition. Nobody wants to watch perfection. Nicolas Cage

Perfection is impossible, but you don’t stop aiming for it. Saquon Barkley

Perfect is the enemy of the good. Voltaire

I gave up my struggle with perfection a long time ago. That is a concept I don’t find very interesting anymore. Everyone just wants to look good in the photographs. I think that is where some of the pressure comes from. Be happy. Be yourself, the day is about a lot more. Anne Hathaway

But quality of work can be expected only through personal satisfaction, dedication and enjoyment. In our profession, precision and perfection are not a dispensable luxury, but a simple necessity. Niklaus Wirth

A certain type of perfection can only be realized through a limitless accumulation of the imperfect. Haruki Murakami

I know I’m not perfect, but I’m so close it scares me. Unknown

Perfectionism is adaptive if you are mindful of your humanhood. Asa Don Brown

Gold cannot be pure, and people cannot be perfect. Chinese Proverb

He who seeks perfection in a friend will stay without friends. Yiddish proverb

I probably do have an obsessive personality, but striving for perfection has served me well. Tom Ford

Fix your eyes on perfection and you make almost everything speed towards it. William Ellery Channing

Love your curves and all your edges

Even when we strive for perfection , life is nothing more than an attempt to achieve it through a series of greater or smaller imperfections. Peter Prange

Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing perfectly. Robert H. Schuller

The artist who aims at perfection in everything achieves it in nothing. Eugene Delacroix

Perfection is an impossible destination. Tim Ferriss

The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection. Michelangelo

Perfection is the object always proposed, though possibly unattainable; hitherto at least, certainly unattained. Lord Chesterfield

Faultily faultless, icily regular, splendidly null, dead perfection; no more. Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without. Confucius

Now that you’ve stopped being perfect you can be good. John Steinbeck

O great creator of being grant us one more hour to perform our art and perfect our lives. Jim Morrison

These empowering hang in there quotes will inspire positivity and good, happy feelings.

Inspirational Perfection Quotes

Perfection is impossible without humility. Why should I strive for perfection, if I am already good enough? Leo Tolstoy

Producing perfection from imperfection is, after all, the highest of art forms. Frank Herbert

Measure not by the scale of perfection the meager product of reality. Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller

The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials. Chinese proverb

Imperfection facilitates improvement, perfection facilitates stagnation. Abhijit Naskar

Perfection is the mere repudiation of that ineluctable marginal inexactitude which is the inmost quality of Being. H. G. Wells

perfection quotes

Where is perfection? Where I cannot reach. Percy Bysshe Shelley

Perfect? How can you define a word without concrete meaning? Ellen Hopkins

The eye always fills in the imperfections. Rabih Alameddine

If the world were perfect, it wouldn’t be. Yogi Berra

Striving to better, oft we mar what’s well. William Shakespeare

If a man should happen to reach perfection in this world, he would have to die immediately to enjoy himself. Josh Billings

Life is a moving, breathing thing. We have to be willing to constantly evolve. Perfection is constant transformation. Nia Peeples

The only skill that cannot be perfected is perfection itself. Daphne Delacroix

He only moves toward the perfection of his art whose criticism surpasses his achievement. Leonardo da Vinci

No one is perfect. It’s not interesting to be perfect. Lindsay Lohan

The man with insight enough to admit his limitations comes nearest to perfection. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Perfection is a trifle dull. It is not the least of life’s ironies that this, which we all aim at, is better not quite achieved. W. Somerset Maugham

Perfect should never be a goal. Perfect just happens if you let it. Wendy Wunder

The pursuit of perfection, then, is the pursuit of sweetness and light. Matthew Arnold

The pursuit of perfection often impedes improvement. George Will

Perfection is terrible, it cannot have children. Sylvia Plath

Until you realize perfection is an ideal and not a reality, you will never have self-confidence. J.S. Felts

Adjusting to the requirement for perfection is, I think, the most difficult part of learning to program. Fred Brooks

Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing. Harriet Braiker

No, you’re not perfect & that’s how it should be. Megan Hine

Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired. Martha Graham

Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired. Martha Graham

I hold that the perfection of form and beauty is contained in the sum of all men. Albrecht Durer

Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see, Thinks what ne’er was, nor is, nor e’er shall be. Alexander Pope

I’m chasing perfection. Kobe Bryant

Find good people and leave the bad ones. But I say, find the good in people and ignore the bad in them. Because no one is perfect. Unknown

When I think of art I think of beauty. Beauty is the mystery of life. It is not in the eye it is in the mind. In our minds there is awareness of perfection. Agnes Martin

No one is perfect… that’s why pencils have erasers. Unknown

Perfection is not necessary to make a real and lasting difference to other people’s lives. J. K. Rowling

Perfection is lots of little things done well. Fernand Point

It’s actually normal to desire perfection—at least near, but remember originality too. Itohan Eghide

If you do not learn to deny yourself, you can make no progress in perfection. John of the Cross

An artist’s only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else’s. J. D. Salinger

Looking for perfection is the only way to motivate yourself. Ronnie O’Sullivan

If everything is imperfect in this imperfect world, love is most perfect in its perfect imperfection. Gunnar Björnstrand

Perfection is immutable. But for things imperfect, change is the way to perfect them. Owen Feltham

Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work. Aristotle

Perfection is perfectly simple; fouling things up requires true skill. Doug Horton

It is through art, and through art only, that we can realize our perfection. Oscar Wilde

You’ll never be perfect. But you’ll always be unique. Unknown

It’s not about finding relevance or perfection or imperfection in objects, but it’s that you can accept yourself and then go out and accept others. Jeff Koons

Allow these uplifting attitude quotes to give you an extra inspiration in your step whenever you may need it.