Further Ponderings on Perfectionism
“The thing that is really hard, and really amazing,
is giving up on being perfect
and beginning the work
of becoming yourself.”
Anna Quindlen
“This is the very perfection of a man,
to find out his own imperfections.”
“They say that nobody is perfect.
Then they tell you practice makes perfect.
I wish they’d make up their minds.”
“Some of us (perfectionists, especially) fuss so much
over making the ‘right’ choice, but in life,
all that’s really needed is to make any’ good’ choice,
believe in it, go through with it,
and accept the consequences.”
Anonymous
“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.”
“Perfection is achieved,
not when there is nothing more to add,
but when there is nothing left to take away.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
“Perfectionism is slow death.”
Hugh Prather
“Out of perfection nothing can be made.
Every process involves breaking something up.”
Joseph Campbell
“Perfectionism is the enemy of creation,
as extreme self-solitude is the enemy of well-being.”
John Updike
“Aim at perfection in everything,
though in most things it is unattainable.
However, they who aim at it and persevere,
will come much nearer to it than those
whose laziness and despondency
make them give it up as unattainable.”
“I’ve been called many names,
like perfectionist, difficult, and obsessive.
I think it takes obsession,
takes searching for the details,
for any artist to be good.”
Barbara Streisand
“Done is better than perfect.”
Scott Allen
“Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor.”
Anne Lamott
“Living in an age of advertisement,
we are perpetually disillusioned.
The perfect life is spread before us every day,
but it changes and withers at a touch.”
Joseph Priestley
