Perfection

"The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection, that one is sometimes willing to commit sins for the sake of loyalty, that one does not push asceticism to the point where it makes friendly intercourse impossible, and that one is prepared in the end to be defeated and broken up by life, which is the inevitable price of fastening one's love upon other human individuals."

"A totalitarian state is in effect a theocracy, and its ruling caste, in order to keep its position, has to be thought of as infallible. But since, in practice, no one is infallible, it is frequently necessary to rearrange past events in order to show that this or that mistake was not made, or that this or that imaginary triumph actually happened. Then, again, every major change in policy demands a corresponding change of doctrine and a revaluation of prominent historical figures."

"Perfection is a myth that blinds from the truth that flawlessness doesn't exist in any facet of reality. Perfection is a drummed-up stereotype to pied-piper the planet into striving for unrealistic ideals. Better to embrace imperfection in its rudimentary form than go mad chasing an unattainable idealism."

"Are you not ashamed that you give your attention to acquiring as much money as possible, and similarly with reputation and honor, and give no attention or thought to truth and understanding and the perfection of your soul?"

"Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see, Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er shall be."

"Perfection is lots of little things done well."

"May I splinter away from myself break into whole units and live in each with perfection!"

"Perfect your Will, Mind, and Feeling, their corporal organs, and their material tools; be useful to yourselves, to your own ones, and to others, and Happiness, insofar as it exists on this earth, will come of itself."

"Perfection is a costly flower and is cultured only by an uncompromising, strict husbandry."

"You will remember that Christ said, "Judge not lest ye be judged." That principle I do not think you would find was popular in the law courts of Christian countries. I have known in my time quite a number of judges who were very earnest Christians, and none of them felt that they were acting contrary to Christian principles in what they did. Then Christ says, "Give to him that asketh of thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away." That is a very good principle. ... Then there is one other maxim of Christ which I think has a great deal in it, but I do not find that it is very popular among some of our Christian friends. He says, "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that which thou hast, and give to the poor." That is a very excellent maxim, but, as I say, it is not much practised. All these, I think, are good maxims, although they are a little difficult to live up to. I do not profess to live up to them myself; but then, after all, it is not quite the same thing as for a Christian."

"One last thought: perhaps our universe is perfect."

"Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty—a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture, without appeal to any part of our weaker nature, without the gorgeous trappings of painting or music, yet sublimely pure, and capable of a stern perfection such as only the greatest art can show. The true spirit of delight, the exaltation, the sense of being more than man, which is the touchstone of the highest excellence, is to be found in mathematics as surely as in poetry."

"There is Humilitas quaedam in Vitio [humility taken to a fault]. If a Man does not take notice of that excellency and perfection that is in himself, how can he be thankful to God, who is the Author of all excellency and perfection?"

"Whose dear perfection hearts that scorn'd to serve Humbly call'd mistress."

"How many things by season season'd are To their right praise and true perfection!"

"It is the witness still of excellency To put a strange face on his own perfection."

"While perfection is never achievable, positive change is always possible."

"The indefatigable pursuit of an unattainable perfection,—even though nothing more than the pounding of an old piano,—is what alone gives a meaning to our life on this unavailing star."

"Place before thyself the ideal of perfection, not that of happiness, for by doing what makes thee wiser and better, thou shalt find the peace and joy in which happiness consists."

"To love the perfection with which we do our work, or the company of those with whom we work, is the secret of learning to love the work itself."

"Perfection is beyond our reach, but they who earnestly strive to become perfect, acquire excellences and virtues of which the multitude have no conception."

"No one can be perfectly free till all are free; no one can be perfectly moral till all are moral; no one can be perfectly happy till all are happy."

"Love is the perfection of consciousness. We do not love because we do not comprehend, or rather we do not comprehend because we do not love. For love is the ultimate meaning of everything around us. It is not a mere sentiment; it is truth; it is the joy that is at the root of all creation. It is the white light of pure consciousness."

"We are all imperfect. We can not expect perfect government."

"Perfectly beautiful: let it be granted her: where is the fault? All that I saw (for her eyes were downcast, not to be seen) Faultily faultless, icily regular, splendidly null, Dead perfection, no more."

"The highest perfection of human life consists in the mind of man being detached from care, for the sake of God."

"Avons-nous désiré, pour rendre notre séparation d'avec le monde aussi parfaite que demande la sainteté de notre état , que le monde eût aversion de nous, comme nous avons aversion du monde, suivant l'exemple que nous en donne l'Apôtre : Mihi mundus crucifucus est et ego mundo. Gai. 6. Enfin, gémissons-nous souvent avec les Saints de nous voir contraints de demeurer encore dans le monde; et avons-nous désiré d'en sortir pour fuir le danger qu'il y a de s'y corrompre?"

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

"In order to feel complete love, we can either delude ourselves that some imperfect object of our love is “perfection” or we can love perfection, which is God."

"Repentance always precedes perfection."

"The further you progress, the higher the ideal of perfection toward which you strive rises."

"The first rule of achieving goodness is this: think only about self-perfection."

"They who have decided to dedicate their lives to spiritual perfection will never be dissatisfied or unhappy, because all that they want is in their power."

"By his father he is English, by his mother he is American—to my mind the blend which makes the perfect man."

"In the eyes of those lovers of perfection, a work is never finished—a word that for them has no sense—but abandoned; and this abandonment, whether to the flames or to the public (and which is the result of weariness or an obligation to deliver) is a kind of an accident to them, like the breaking off of a reflection, which fatigue, irritation, or something similar has made worthless."

"The perfection of a clock is not to go fast, but to be accurate."

"Aristotle especially, both by speculation and observation... reached something like the modern idea of a succession of higher organizations from lower, and made the fruitful suggestion of "a perfecting principle" in Nature. With the coming in of Christian theology this tendency toward a yet truer theory of evolution was mainly stopped, but the old crude view remained..."

"Private property ... has led Individualism entirely astray. It has made gain not growth its aim. So that man thought that the important thing was to have, and did not know that the important thing is to be. The true perfection of man lies, not in what man has, but in what man is."

"What Jesus does say is that man reaches his perfection, not through what he has, not even through what he does, but entirely through what he is."

"The urge to perfect can sometimes sterilise the very thing that gives a song life. Listen closely to Keith’s guitar part in ‘Satisfaction’ and you can hear stompbox clicks and tiny slips in timing. No one fixed them, and thank God they didn’t. That rawness is part of the feel. It’s proof that sometimes the best move is to leave the mess alone."

"The gentleman knows that whatever is imperfect and unrefined does not deserve praise. ... He makes his eyes not want to see what is not right, makes his ears not want to hear that is not right, makes his mouth not want to speak what is not right, and makes his heart not want to deliberate over what is not right. ... For this reason, power and profit cannot sway him, the masses cannot shift him, and nothing in the world can shake him."

"Math is perfect (in principle), but mathematicians are not (because they are humans), hence the mathematics that (human) mathematicians do is influenced by the weltanschauung of the people around them."

"Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle."

"What's come to perfection perishes, Things learned on earth we shall practise in heaven; Works done least rapidly Art most cherishes."

"The very pink of perfection."

"A man cannot have an idea of perfection in another, which he was never sensible of in himself."

"In this broad earth of ours, Amid the measureless grossness and the slag, Enclosed and safe within its central heart, Nestles the seed perfection."

"What Jesus meant, was this. He said to man, ‘You have a wonderful personality. Develop it. Be yourself. Don’t imagine that your perfection lies in accumulating or possessing external things. Your perfection is inside of you. If only you could realise that, you would not want to be rich. Ordinary riches can be stolen from a man. Real riches cannot. In the treasury-house of your soul, there are infinitely precious things, that may not be taken from you. And so, try to so shape your life that external things will not harm you. And try also to get rid of personal property. It involves sordid preoccupation, endless industry, continual wrong. Personal property hinders Individualism at every step.’"