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Strive for excellence, not perfection, because we don't live in a perfect world.
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Joyce Meyer
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Do your best, and be a little better than you are.
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Gordon B. Hinckley
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I do the very best I know how, the very best I can, and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.
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Abraham Lincoln
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Always strive to excel, but only on weekends.
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Richard Rorty
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Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing.
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Harriet B. Braiker
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The excellence of water appears in its benefiting all things, and in its occupying, without striving (to the contrary), the low place which all men dislike.
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Lao Tzu (Tao Te Ching)
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If you're a writer, write. And always strive for excellence.
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Linda W. Yezak
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Perfectionism is not the same thing as striving for excellence. Perfectionism is not about healthy achievement and growth. Perfectionism is a defensive move. It’s the belief that if we do things perfectly and look perfect, we can minimize or avoid the pain of blame, judgment, and shame.
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Brené Brown (Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead)
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Anyone can fail at something they really don’t want. What really takes courage is going after something you want and then failing. There is more fulfillment in life knowing that you tried, rather than settled without a fight.
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Shannon L. Alder
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And the next time I did school stuff in the middle of the night, I just did it in my closet with the door locked. Honestly, what is wrong with this country when striving for excellence means you need antidepressants?
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Rachel Hawkins (Rebel Belle (Rebel Belle, #1))
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Virtue is an excellent thing and we should all strive after it, but it can sometimes be a little depressing.
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Barbara Pym (Excellent Women)
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If someone does a Great job or provide excellent service, make sure to recognize and reward them! If someone wrote a book you enjoy, tell them. If you want people to put out their best and to strive for excellence, encourage and support them. - Strong by Kailin Gow on Leadership
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Kailin Gow
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The Jihad of this age is to strive in upholding the word of Islam, to refute the objections of the opponents, to propagate the excellences of the Islamic faith, and to proclaim the truth of the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, throughout the world. This is Jihad till God Almighty brings about other conditions in the world.
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Mirza Ghulam Ahmad
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A good company offers excellent products and services. A great company also offers excellent products and services but also strives to make the world a better place.
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Philip Kotler (Corporate Social Responsibility: Doing the Most Good for Your Company and Your Cause)
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Remember, nothing happens before it’s supposed to, so trust that, as you are striving for authenticity and personal excellence, the recognition of your life’s purpose is nearing closer.
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Jennifer Elisabeth (Born Ready: Unleash Your Inner Dream Girl)
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You know Mildred would never do anything wrong or foolish. I reflected a little sadly that this was only too true and hoped I did not appear too much that kind of person to others. Virtue is an excellent thing and we should all strive after it, but it can sometimes be a little depressing.
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Barbara Pym (Excellent Women)
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Strive for excellence, rather than perfection, and the audience may so enjoy your beautiful, expressive tone that they will readily forgive a few stray notes.
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Ruth Bonetti (Confident Music Performance (Taking Centre Stage))
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… Damned is the soul that dies while the evil it committed lives on. And the most damned of all
are those who see the evil coming for others and refuse to confront it. For it is not out of fear that
heroes are born, but rather out of their selfless love that will not allow them safety bought from
the torture, death, and degradation of others. It is better to die in defense of another than to live
with the knowledge that you could have saved them but chose to do nothing.
And to those who think that one person cannot make a difference, I say this … the deadliest tidal
wave begins as an unseen ripple in a vast ocean. Live your life so that your integrity will motivate
others to strive for excellence long after you’ve passed on, and know that no good deed or
sacrifice, or offer of sincere friendship or love, is ever forgotten by the one who receives it.
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Sherrilyn Kenyon (Inferno (Chronicles of Nick, #4))
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Mediocre people promote mediocrity. Dont hire mediocre people. Instead, hire people who strive for greatness and they'll spread that greatness throughout the company.
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Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr.
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In the common degree of the moral, there is no virtue. Virtue is excellence.
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Adam Smith
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Don’t be so hard on yourself. Be perfectly okay with being who YOU are. Fully embrace yourself, flaws and all. Love yourself right where you are. Strive to do better, but don’t beat yourself up for every shortcoming that you may have. Be brave in your journey! Hold your head up high, and keep moving forward.
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Stephanie Lahart
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No matter what, be the best, strive for excellence without rest.
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Debasish Mridha
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He loved the sea for deep-seated reasons: the hardworking artist's need for repose, the desire to take shelter from the demanding diversity of phenomena in the bosom of boundless simplicity, a propensity—proscribed and diametrically opposed to his mission in life and for that very reason seductive—a propensity for the unarticulated, the immoderate, the eternal, for nothingness. To repose in perfection is the desire of all those who strive for excellence, and is not nothingness a form of perfection?
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Thomas Mann (Death in Venice)
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There will always be some who see excellence and envy it instead of striving to emulate it.
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Jo Walton (The Just City (Thessaly, #1))
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Find what you're good at. whatever it is, and become excellent at it. Excellence isn't magic - it's habit, the by product of doing something over and over and striving to be the best at it. Simply figure out what your passion is, and resolve to make excellence your habit.
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Lauren Rowe (The Club (The Club, #1))
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We simply do not allow space in our hearts, minds, or souls for darkness.
Instead, we choose faith. Faith in ourselves and the power of hard work. Faith in our God whose overwhelming love sustains us every single day. That's what we choose.
We choose love. Our love for our children. Our commitment to leaving them a better world. Our love for our country which has given us so many blessings and advantages. Our love for our fellow citizens: parents working hard to support their kids, men and women in uniform who risk everything to keep us safe, young people from the toughest background who never stop believing in their dreams, some people like so many of you. That's what we choose.
And we choose excellence. We choose to tune out all the noise and strive for excellence in everything we do. No cutting corners, no taking shortcuts, no whining. We give 120% every single time. Because excellence is the most powerful answer you can give to the doubters and the haters. It's also the most powerful thing you can do for yourself. Because the process of striving, and struggling, and pushing yourself to new heights, that's how you develop your God-given talent. That's how you make yourself stronger, and smarter, and more able to make a difference for others.
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Michelle Obama
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Arete is simply excellence and the striving for excellence in all things,” said Odysseus. “Arete simply means the act of offering all actions as a sort of sacrament to excellence, of devoting one’s life to finding excellence, identifying it when it offers itself, and achieving it in your own life.
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Dan Simmons (Ilium (Ilium, #1))
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Chaos is the enemy of any organization the strives to be outstanding.
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Karen Martin (The Outstanding Organization: Generate Business Results by Eliminating Chaos and Building the Foundation for Everyday Excellence)
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How can we set up a system which encourages individuals to strive and excel, and yet which shows some compassion to the weak, and weeds out madmen and tyrants?
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David Brin (The Postman)
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It doesn’t cost more to strive for excellence, but if you settle for mediocrity, it’ll cost you dearly.
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Frank Sonnenberg (Listen to Your Conscience: That's Why You Have One)
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Strive for excellence, not perfection
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Sukhraj S. Dhillon
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The Bible considers our relationship more important than our accomplishment. God will get His work done! He does not demand that we accomplish great things; He demands that we strive for excellence in our relationships.33
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Joey Bonifacio (The LEGO Principle: The Power of Connecting to God and One Another)
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Where there is no incentive to understand, most do not strive to do so. Natural ability does not equate to excellence.
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Shannon Mayer (A Court of Honey and Ash (Honey and Ice, #1))
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So our definition of manliness, like that of the ancients, is simple: striving for virtue, honor, and excellence in all areas of your life, fulfilling your potential as a man, and being the absolute best brother, friend, husband, father and citizen you can be.
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Brett McKay (The Art of Manliness - Manvotionals: Timeless Wisdom and Advice on Living the 7 Manly Virtues)
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Our culture has an idea of competition in the pursuit of excellence that can make anyone not striving for the top feel like a worthless, non-productive bystander. This applies not only to one's career but even to one's leisure.
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Elaine N. Aron (The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You)
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I tried to bunked classes, I skipped lectures, I cheated in exams, I lied to my teachers and some stuff were taken for granted when I was a student before. I am not proud about it. Of course, I learned from that experience. I learned that everyone has a chance to change. It doesn't mean that if I am dumbass before and you call me the same thing now. Because now, I work hard, play the game well and strive for excellence. This is me now, a guy with a strong grit in my heart.
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Nathaniel E. Quimada
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Flow wherever you go. You can’t be limited. Dare to rise above all limitations and become better than you were. Strive to arrive at the top.
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Israelmore Ayivor (Become a Better You)
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We strive hard for excellence in the music, while striving even harder for change outside the music.
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R-swift
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We are growing day by day as we are continuously striving for excellence in life.
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Euginia Herlihy
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We shouldn't be fearful of failure because is not a monster as we think it is. It's just a training ground for those who are really striving for excellence in life.
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Euginia Herlihy
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But if you’re striving for excellence—whether it’s in playing the guitar or flying a jet—there’s no such thing as over-preparation. It’s your best chance of improving your odds. In
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Chris Hadfield (An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth)
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They weren’t striving for perfect, but managed somehow to be always excellent,
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Michelle Obama (Becoming)
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From now to the end of your life...
Strive for excellence. Strive for Peace. Strive for happiness❤
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Timothy Pina (Bullying Ben: How Benjamin Franklin Overcame Bullying)
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Strive for excellence, reach for the sky!
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Ari Joseph
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Don't Settle for Mediocrity. Strive for Excellence
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Mac James
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When I’m passionate about something I strive for excellence, judging whether or not I achieved it is up to the audience.
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BatWhaleDragon
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Strive For Excellence
Perhaps the most
Important single cause of
A person's success or
Failure educationally has
To do with the question
Of what he believes about
Himself
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Arthur W. Combs
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Good is not good enough. Strive for excellence.
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Sujit Banerjee (Rukhsat The Departure)
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Consider your time valuable and manage it effectively and efficiently.
Don’t waste it. Produce high-quality products that will inspire others.
Make it a point of duty to add value to your work during the progress.
Don’t settle to less; make it your best, strive to win the test!
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Joseph S. Spence Sr.
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The pursuit of perfection is frustrating and a waste of time, because nothing is ever perfect.
The pursuit of excellence is commendable and worthwhile. Therefore strive for excellence not perfection.
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NOT A BOOK
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Religion requires perfection, but the kingdom values excellence. If we strive for perfection and don’t allow ourselves room to be wrong, we will never grow. Perfection is an unattainable destination, but excellence is an exciting journey. It’s a journey in which we allow the Holy Spirit to teach, guide, and mentor us. If you strive to never make a mistake, you will make the biggest one by never stepping out in faith.
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Bob Hazlett (The Roar: God's Sound In A Raging World)
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A true artist removes his heart willingly, allows constructive criticism to stomp it, then puts it back—bruised and aching—as he continues to strive for excellence due to the all-consuming obsession and love for his art.
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H.G. Mewis
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Gracious pride is a powerful motivator and an exceptional quality. It drives a person to strive for excellence, keep promises, not give up, be more resilient, maintain optimism, and hold their head high while enduring challenge and change.
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Susan C. Young (The Art of Being: 8 Ways to Optimize Your Presence & Essence for Positive Impact (The Art of First Impressions for Positive Impact, #1))
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What I found was a hidden source of anguish that wasn’t just widespread but nearly universal among people who have done well in their careers. I came to call this the “striver’s curse”: people who strive to be excellent at what they do often wind up finding their inevitable decline terrifying, their successes increasingly unsatisfying, and their relationships lacking.
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Arthur C. Brooks (From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life)
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I love and admire beauty in all forms. I have an innate desire to strive for excellence in everything I take on. I’m more tough than sensitive. I seem to have more “manly” qualities in terms of behavior, although I love to celebrate the “girly” in me.
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Dominique Sachse (Life Makeover: Embrace the Bold, Beautiful, and Blessed You)
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But man is a frivolous and incongruous creature, and perhaps, like a chess player, loves the process of the game, not the end of it. And who knows (there is no saying with certainty), perhaps the only goal on earth to which mankind is striving lies in this incessant process of attaining, in other words, in life itself, and not in the thing to be attained, which must always be expressed as a formula, as positive as twice two makes four, and such positiveness is not life, gentlemen, but is the beginning of death. Anyway, man has always been afraid of this mathematical certainty, and I am afraid of it now. Granted that man does nothing but seek that mathematical certainty, he traverses oceans, sacrifices his life in the quest, but to succeed, really to find it, dreads, I assure you. He feels that when he has found it there will be nothing for him to look for. When workmen have finished their work they do at least receive their pay, they go to the tavern, then they are taken to the police-station–and there is occupation for a week. But where can man go? Anyway, one can observe a certain awkwardness about him when he has attained such objects. He loves the process of attaining, but does not quite like to have attained, and that, of course, is very absurd. In fact, man is a comical creature; there seems to be a kind of jest in it all. But yet mathematical certainty is after all, something insufferable. Twice two makes four seems to me simply a piece of insolence. Twice two makes four is a pert coxcomb who stands with arms akimbo barring your path and spitting. I admit that twice two makes four is an excellent thing, but if we are to give everything its due, twice two makes five is sometimes a very charming thing too.
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Fyodor Dostoevsky (Notes from Underground, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, and Selections from The House of the Dead)
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...[Strive to be]... silent and cheerful. Grown men always tell you that this is the way of excellence, but they neglect to tell you that it is easier to be silent and dignified and cheerful when you are forty and have won ten battles. It's like getting women - much easier when you are too old to enjoy them - Killer of Men
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Christian Cameron
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But if you’re striving for excellence—whether it’s in playing the guitar or flying a jet—there’s no such thing as over-preparation. It’s your best chance of improving your
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Chris Hadfield (An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth)
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Excellence doesn't mean we have to be 100% better in any one thing: it means we strive to be 1% better in 100 things.
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Jan Carlzon
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Strive for perfection, excellence, and never give up.
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Chris Mentillo (Obliterated: Everything is About To Change)
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It’s about striving for sustainable excellence rather than fleeting perfection.
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Anne-Laure Le Cunff (Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World)
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Don’t be ordinary; strive for extraordinary. Demand excellence in everything.
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L.C. Fowler (Dare To Live Greatly: The Courage To Live A Powerful Christian Life (2022 EDITION))
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I’ve put some thought to it. How can we set up a system which encourages individuals to strive and excel, and yet which shows some compassion to the weak, and weeds out madmen and tyrants?
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David Brin (The Postman)
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A definite view, by contrast, favors firm convictions. Instead of pursuing many-sided mediocrity and calling it “well-roundedness,” a definite person determines the one best thing to do and then does it. Instead of working tirelessly to make herself indistinguishable, she strives to be great at something substantive—to be a monopoly of one. This is not what young people do today, because everyone around them has long since lost faith in a definite world. No one gets into Stanford by excelling at just one thing, unless that thing happens to involve throwing or catching a leather ball.
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Peter Thiel (Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future)
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There is more to life than work, and a life without ample space for family and friends is incomplete. But this much should not be controversial: Vocation—one’s calling in life—plays a large role in defining the meaning of that life. For some, the nurturing of children is the vocation. For some, an avocation or a cause can become an all-absorbing source of satisfaction, with the job a means of paying the bills and nothing more. But for many others, vocation takes the form of the work one does for a living. Working hard, seeking to get ahead, and striving to excel at one’s craft are not only quintessential features of traditional American culture but also some of its best features. Industriousness is a resource for living a fulfilling human life instead of a life that is merely entertaining.
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Charles Murray (Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010)
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Sow the seeds of hard work and you will reap the fruits of success. Find something to do, do it with all your concentration. You will excel.
Show the world you are not here to just pass through. Leave great footprints wherever you pass and be remembered for the change you initiated.
Flow wherever you go. You can’t be limited. Dare to rise above all limitations and become better than you were. Strive to arrive at the top.
Glow wherever you go and let the light of God reflect in the world around you. You carry the light of God and wherever you pass, darkness must flee.
Grow your talents and skills through a consistent practice and progressive learning. Learn to relearn and unlearn. Raise the bar for yourself always.
Blow out all negative attitudes and live true to your dreams. Talks less and act more. Be confident and see yourself wining even before the victory comes.
Know God and let Him be known. You were saved by grace for greater works apportioned for you even before you were born. Share the good news.
I am proud of you because greater things that eyes have not seen yet, the Lord will do through you.
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Israelmore Ayivor (Become a Better You)
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you don’t need to obsess over details if you’re willing to roll the dice and accept whatever happens. But if you’re striving for excellence—whether it’s in playing the guitar or flying a jet—there’s no such thing as over-preparation.
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Chris Hadfield (An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth)
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Thus pride wears the mask of loftiness of spirit, although You alone, O God, are high over all. Ambition seeks honour and glory, although You alone are to be honoured before all and glorious forever. By cruelty the great seek to be feared, yet who is to be feared but God alone: from His power what can be wrested away, or when or where or how or by whom? The caresses by which the lustful seduce are a seeking for love: but nothing is more caressing than Your charity, nor is anything more healthfully loved than Your supremely lovely, supremely luminous Truth. Curiosity may be regarded as a desire for knowledge, whereas You supremely know all things. Ignorance and sheer stupidity hide under the names of simplicity and innocence: yet no being has simplicity like to Yours: and none is more innocent than You, for it is their own deeds that harm the wicked. Sloth pretends that it wants quietude: but what sure rest is there save the Lord? Luxuriousness would be called abundance and completeness; but You are the fullness and inexhaustible abundance of incorruptible delight. Wastefulness is a parody of generosity: but You are the infinitely generous giver of all good. Avarice wants to possess overmuch: but You possess all. Enviousness claims that it strives to excel: but what can excel before You? Anger clamours for just vengeance: but whose vengeance is so just as Yours? Fear is the recoil from a new and sudden threat to something one holds dear, and a cautious regard for one’s own safety: but nothing new or sudden can happen to You, nothing can threaten Your hold upon things loved, and where is safety secure save in You? Grief pines at the loss of things in which desire delighted: for it wills to be like to You from whom nothing can be taken away.
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Augustine of Hippo (Confessions)
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I must address the topic of whether the effort required for excellence worth it. I believe it is—the chief gain is in the effort to change yourself, in the struggle with yourself, and it is less in the winning than you might expect. Yes, it is nice to end up where you wanted to be, but the person you are when you get there is far more important. I believe a life in which you do not try to extend yourself regularly is not worth living—but it is up to you to pick the goals you believe are worth striving for.
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Richard Hamming (You and Your Research)
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The chief guide which must direct us in the choice of a profession is the welfare of mankind and our own perfection. It should not be thought that these two interests could be in conflict, that one would have to destroy the other; on the contrary, man's nature is so constituted that he can attain his own perfection only by working for the perfection, for the good, of his fellow men.
If he works only for himself, he may perhaps become a famous man of learning, a great sage, an excellent poet, but he can never be a perfect, truly great man.
History calls those men the greatest who have ennobled themselves by working for the common good; experience acclaims as happiest the man who has made the greatest number of people happy; religion itself teaches us that the ideal being whom all strive to copy sacrificed himself for the sake of mankind, and who would dare to set at nought such judgments?
If we have chosen the position in life in which we can most of all work for mankind, no burdens can bow us down, because they are sacrifices for the benefit of all; then we shall experience no petty, limited, selfish joy, but our happiness will belong to millions, our deeds will live on quietly but perpetually at work, and over our ashes will be shed the hot tears of noble people.
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Karl Marx
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One thing that unites triumphant entrepreneurs, whether in Brooklyn, San Francisco or Great Falls, Montana, is strength of character.Individuality is the goal that we all strive to excel at in some way; the notion that we are distinct, special, that there is something teachable about our wisdom, something remarkable about our outlook.
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Brian D'Ambrosio (From Haikus to Hatmaking: One Year in the Life of Western Montana)
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The healthiest congregations with the most thoughtful worship engage in an eclectic mix of worship expression that keeps faith fresh, serves multiple generations, stays rooted in the past, blossoms toward the future, stimulates childlike love, strives for excellence in presentation, bridges cultural barriers, and encourages ever-greater understanding.
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Bryan Chapell (Christ-Centered Worship: Letting the Gospel Shape Our Practice)
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Masters are doers of the Word of Thelema. That is, they do their own True Will. And they are willing to pay the price for it. They take the greatest chance of all, that of being their own God, their own Individual, their own Self, and their own Leader and Master in a world of senseless followers and slaves. They accept complete responsibility for their own life and they always strive for excellence, continuously moving in an upward and onward manner, with energy and enthusiasm, discipline and diligence, persistence and power. They are strong, able to turn everything to the advantage of their True Will, and able to endure and surmount all the necessary trials and errors that lead to the fulfillment of their Chosen Path. Nothing is against them; they are not victims, and they make no excuses.
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David Cherubim (Lucifer's Rebellion: A Tribute to Christopher S. Hyatt (Occult Series Book 3))
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Break out to go out
___________________
The birds dare to break the egg shell
It does so in order to get out of that Hell
When it finally succeeds, it’ll then fly
To its comfort zone it’ll say bye
Are you being confined in a small space
How long will you remain at that place?
Before you can explore more territories,
Break away from the former glories.
Yesterday’s excellence is today’s average
You must strive to be better age after age
Never accept the available mediocrity
As the only preferable opportunity
Decide to grow from below to hero
And make it a point to vacate level zero
Reach out and arise with power
God’s blessings on you, will shower
Agree to grow, never attempt to be slow
Be not afraid. Never doubt. You’ll flow
The grace of God will be your guide
Taking you along, side by side.
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Israelmore Ayivor (Become a Better You)
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The story of your species is indeed a tragic story, for it closes with desolation. Your part in that story is both to strive and to fail in a unique opportunity, and so to set the current of history toward disaster. But think not therefore that your species has occurred in vain, or that your own individual lives are futile. Whatever any of you has achieved of good is an excellence in itself, and a bright thread woven into the texture of the cosmos.
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Olaf Stapledon (Last Men in London)
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And, like Buddha, Spinoza is often dismissed as a mere seeker of tranquillity – but what he valued most was joy, which he defined as a sense of empowerment created by the understanding mind. But, again as in the teachings of Buddha, understanding is not a passive, final state, but a process requiring ceaseless effort. In another insight prefiguring neurobiology, which defines living organisms as systems for optimizing life conditions, Spinoza suggested that our very nature is to strive. His Latin word for human nature, conatus, means ‘striving’ or ‘endeavour’: ‘The striving by which each thing attempts to persevere in its being is nothing other than the actual essence of the thing.’ And the striving has to be difficult to be valuable: ‘If salvation were readily available and could be attained without great effort, how could it be neglected by almost everyone? All that is excellent is as difficult to attain as it is rare.
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Michael Foley (The Age of Absurdity: Why Modern Life makes it Hard to be Happy)
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The truth is out there, but the truth also seems to be very subjective. With access to so many types of information, there is bound to be some miscommunication that goes on in libraries. "Some" could be an understatement. Okay, there is a lot of miscommunication happening. To combat this, librarians strive to develop excellent listening skills, impeccable library instruction, and good follow-up questions. And a killer poker face hidden by a fashionable pair of glasses never hurts.
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Gina Sheridan (I Work at a Public Library: A Collection of Crazy Stories from the Stacks)
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Strive for the cause of God as it behoves you to strive for it. He has chosen you and laid on you no burden in the matter of your religion, the faith of Abraham your forefather. In this, as in former scriptures He has given you the name of Muslims, so that the Messenger may be a witness over you, and so that you may be witnesses over mankind. Therefore, say your prayers regularly and pay the zakat and hold fast to God. He is your master. An excellent master and an excellent helper!
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Anonymous (Quran)
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When the humanity of others who were previously invisible becomes apparent to us for the first time, I think it is because we have noticed something particular in them. By contrast, egalitarian empathy, projected from afar and without discrimination, is more principled than attentive. It is content to posit rather than to see the humanity of its beneficiaries. But the one who is on the receiving end of such empathy wants something more than to be recognized generically. He wants to be seen as an individual, and recognized as worthy on the same grounds on which he has striven to be worthy, indeed superior, by cultivating some particular excellence or skill. We all strive for distinction, and I believe that to honor another person is to honor this aspiring core of him. I can do this by allowing myself to respond in kind, and experience the concrete difference between him and me. This may call for silent deference on my part, as opposed to chummy liberal solicitude.
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Matthew B. Crawford (The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction)
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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.
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Ashlee Gadd (Create Anyway: The Joy of Pursuing Creativity in the Margins of Motherhood)
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I have extended the ‘good-enough’ theory to most of my life and now my death. We are, at times, so often obsessed or feel pressurised into ‘being the best at …, the fastest at …, the cleverest at …’ I genuinely worry about all of this positive thinking/life coaching! … It is undoubtedly excellent to strive to achieve one’s maximum potential, but that should be to please ourselves, not be judged by others, and for me having led a ‘good-enough’ life with its share of wonders and disasters, I am content and so, ready for a ‘good-enough’ death.
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Derren Brown (Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine)
“
Our English tongue, which hath been the most harsh, uneven, and broken language of the world, part Dutch, part Irish, Saxon, Scotch, Welsh, and indeed a gallimaufry of many, but perfect in none, is now by this secondary means of playing, continually refined, every writer striving in himself to add a new flourish unto it; so that in process, from the most rude and unpolished tongue, it is grown to a most perfect and composed language, and many excellent works and elaborate poems writ in the same, that many nations grow enamored of our tongue (before despised).
”
”
Thomas Heywood
“
...man is a frivolous and unseemly being, and perhaps, similar to a chess player, likes only the process of achieving the goal, but not the goal itself. And who knows (one cannot vouch for it), perhaps the whole goal mankind strives for on earth consists just in this cease-lessness of the process of achievement alone, that is to say, in life itself, and not essentially in the goal, which, of course, is bound to be nothing other than two times two is four – that is, a formula; and two times two is four is no longer life, gentlemen, but the beginning of death. At least man has always somehow feared this two times two is four, and I fear it even now. Suppose all man ever does is search for this two times two is four; he crosses oceans, he sacrifices his life in the search; but to search it out, actually to find it – by God, he's somehow afraid. For he senses that once he finds it, there will be nothing to search for. Workers, when they're done working, at least get their pay, go to a pot-house, then wind up with the police – so it keeps them busy for a week. But where is man to go? Something awkward, at any rate, can be noticed in him each time he achieves some such goal. Achieving he likes, but having achieved he does not quite like, and that, of course, is terribly funny. In short, man is comically arranged; there is apparently a joke in all this. But still, two times two is four is a most obnoxious thing. Two times two is four – why, in my opinion, it's sheer impudence, sirs. Two times two is four has a cocky look; it stands across your path, arms akimbo, and spits. I agree that two times two is four is an excellent thing; but if we're going to start praising everything, then two times two is five is sometimes also a most charming little thing.
”
”
Fyodor Dostoevsky (Notes from Underground)
“
Subject: SELF WORTH (Very Deep!!!) In a brief conversation, a man asked a woman he was pursuing the question: 'What kind of man are you looking for?' She sat quietly for a moment before looking him in the eye & asking, 'Do you really want to know?' Reluctantly, he said, 'Yes. She began to expound, 'As a woman in this day & age, I am in a position to ask a man what can you do for me that I can't do for myself? I pay my own bills. I take care of my household without the help of any man... or woman for that matter. I am in the position to ask, 'What can you bring to the table?' The man looked at her. Clearly he thought that she was referring to money. She quickly corrected his thought & stated, 'I am not referring to money. I need something more. I need a man who is striving for excellence in every aspect of life. He sat back in his chair, folded his arms, & asked her to explain. She said, 'I need someone who is striving for excellence mentally because I need conversation & mental stimulation. I don't need a simple-minded man. I need someone who is striving for excellence spiritually because I don't need to be unequally yoked...believers mixed with unbelievers is a recipe for disaster. I need a man who is striving for excellence financially because I don't need a financial burden. I need someone who is sensitive enough to understand what I go through as a woman, but strong enough to keep me grounded. I need someone who has integrity in dealing with relationships. Lies and game-playing are not my idea of a strong man. I need a man who is family-oriented. One who can be the leader, priest and provider to the lives entrusted to him by God. I need someone whom I can respect. In order to be submissive, I must respect him. I cannot be submissive to a man who isn't taking care of his business. I have no problem being submissive...he just has to be worthy. And by the way, I am not looking for him...He will find me. He will recognize himself in me. Hey may not be able to explain the connection, but he will always be drawn to me. God made woman to be a help-mate for man. I can't help a man if he can't help himself. When she finished her spill, she looked at him. He sat there with a puzzled look on his face. He said, 'You are asking a lot. She replied, "I'm worth a lot". Send this to every woman who's worth a lot.... and every man who has the brains to understand!!
”
”
Dru Edmund Kucherera
“
I confess, I have setbacks like anyone. But they don’t cause distress or coalesce in a mess for I’ve learned to step back, to reflect and assess where I’m at and enact a simple plan of attack — to press forward, progress; not digress, not give up nor express my despair but address what I can, my mistakes and my faults, with a head-on assault. For I’m blessed with my faith and belief and a chest that encases a heart that does not know the meaning of “quit" or “give up" or “there there” or “oh well”, “never-mind” or “bad luck” or “just try something else”, no. Me and myself, my reflection and I, we are not of that ilk, we aren’t ones to comply. We aren’t ones to conform or accept that the norm is a one-size-fits-all way to simply exist for we strive to be different, incredible, unique. Not irrelevant, invisible, insignificant or meek. We strive to resist and we fight to excel, so setbacks to us are a thing to be quashed, to be quelled, to be squished, to be left in our wake as we go on our way, as we sail right on by to impossible ends, to what few dare to try. This is why – this is why – as my reflection attests, there is no time to rest. The struggle is unending … but I will give it my best.
”
”
Shaun Hick
“
You didn’t warn us about this, Readier,’ said Stowley resentfully.
Gilt waved his hands. ‘We must speculate to accumulate!’ he said. ‘The Post Office? Trickery and sleight of hand. Oh, von Lipwig is an ideas man, but that’s all he is. He’s made a splash, but he’s not got the stamina for the long haul. Yet as it turns out he will do us a favour. Perhaps we have been . . . a little smug, a little lax, but we have learned our lesson! Spurred by the competition we are investing several hundred thousand dollars—’
‘Several hundred?’ said Greenyham.
Gilt waved him into silence, and continued: ‘—several hundred thousand dollars in a challenging, relevant and exciting systemic overhaul of our entire organization, focusing on our core competencies while maintaining full and listening co-operation with the communities we are proud to serve. We fully realize that our energetic attempts to mobilize the flawed infrastructure we inherited have been less than totally satisfactory, and hope and trust that our valued and loyal customers will bear with us in the coming months as we interact synergistically with change management in our striving for excellence. That is our mission.’
An awed silence followed.
”
”
Terry Pratchett (Going Postal (Discworld, #33; Moist von Lipwig, #1))
“
Gradually, his movements are freed from the shackles of his will, and he goes into a light trance which gives his gestures the perfection of conscious, automatic motion, without thought or calculation, and the scythe seems to move of its own accord. Levin delights in the forgetfulness that movement brings, where the pleasure of doing is marvelously foreign to the striving of the will.
This is eminently true of many happy moments in life. Freed from the demands of decision and intention, adrift on some inner sea, we observe our various movements as if they belonged to someone else, and yet we admire their involuntary excellence. What other reason might I have for writing this—ridiculous journal of an aging concierge—if the writing did not have something of the art of scything about it? The lines gradually become their own demiurges and, like some witless yet miraculous participant, I witness the birth on paper of sentences that have eluded my will and appear in spite of me on the sheet, teaching me something that I neither knew nor thought I might want to know. This painless birth, like an unsolicited proof, gives me untold pleasure, and with neither toil nor certainty but the joy of frank astonishment I follow the pen that is guiding and supporting me.
”
”
Muriel Barbery (The Elegance of the Hedgehog)
“
In Greece, there was no dominating church or creed, but there was a dominating ideal, which everyone would want to pursue if he caught sight of it. Different men saw it differently. It was one thing to the artist, another to the warrior. Excellence is the nearest equivalent we have for the word they used for it, but it meant more than that. It was the utmost perfection possible; the very best and highest a man could attain to which when perceived always has a compelling authority. A man must strive to attain it. We must love the highest when we see it. No one Socrates said is willingly deprived of the Good. To win it required all that a man could give.
”
”
Edith Hamilton (The Greek Way)
“
Perhaps you are not yet where you feel you should be, but from one dreamer to another, a careful word of advice: You could reach every last one of your goals and still find yourself unfulfilled at the finishing line.
The true essence of life exists in the in between. It is in the striving that your excellence is exposed to the world. It is in the setbacks that the strength of your spirit is learned. In the unfinished dream lies the full and burning heart of life.
It is only a spell of the mind, an artful deception, that you might find fulfillment in fortune, fame, perfection or power. Life is lived here: In the distance you still have left to travel. The is where the true magic happens.
- The Ascent
”
”
Beau Taplin (Here at Dawn)
“
We who, in our familiar individual sphere are able to regard all conceivable tragedy not merely with fortitude but with exultation, are obscurely conscious that as the racial mind we have looked into an abyss of evil such as we cannot now conceive, and could not endure to conceive. Yet even this hell we know to have been acceptable as an organic member in the austere form of the cosmos. We remember obscurely, and yet with a strange conviction, that all the age-long striving of the human spirit, no less than the petty cravings of individuals, was seen as a fair component in something far more admirable than itself; and that man ultimately defeated, no less than man for a while triumphant, contributes to this higher excellence.
”
”
Olaf Stapledon (Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future)
“
No profession, trade, or calling, is overcrowded in the upper story. Wherever you find the most honest and intelligent merchant or banker, or the best lawyer, the best doctor, the best clergyman, the best shoemaker, carpenter, or anything else, that man is most sought for, and has always enough to do. As a nation, Americans are too superficial—they are striving to get rich quickly, and do not generally do their business as substantially and thoroughly as they should, but whoever excels all others in his own line, if his habits are good and his integrity undoubted, cannot fail to secure abundant patronage and the wealth that naturally follows. Let your motto then always be "Excelsior," for by living up to it there is no such word as fail
”
”
P.T. Barnum (Art of Getting Money in the 21st Century)
“
Lord look upon Thy people. We might pray about our troubles. We will not; we will only pray against our sins. We might come to Thee about our weariness, about our sickness, about our disappointment, about our poverty; but we will leave all that, we will only come about sin. Lord make us holy, and then do what Thou wilt with us. We pray Thee help us to adore the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. If we are fighting against sin — “ the sin which doth so easily beset us “ — Lord lend us heavenly weapons and heavenly strength that we may cut the giants down, these men of Anak that come against us. We feel very feeble. Oh! make us strong in the Lord, in the power of His might. May we never let sin have any rest in us, may we chase it, drive it out, slay it, hang it on a tree, abhor it, and may we “ cleave to that which is good.” Some of us are trying, striving after some excellent virtue. Lord help strugglers; enable those that contend against great difficulties only to greater grace, more faith, and so to bring them nearer to God. Lord we will be holy; by Thy grace we will never rest until we are. Thou hast begun a good work in us and Thou wilt carry it on. Thou wilt work in us to will and to do of Thine own good pleasure.
”
”
Berenice Aguilera (C.H. Spurgeon's Prayers)
“
It is only the highest intellectual power what we may call genius, that attains to this degree of intensity, making all time and existence its theme, and striving to express its peculiar conception of the world, whether it contemplates life as the subject of poetry or of philosophy. Hence undisturbed occupation with himself, his own thoughts and works, is a matter of urgent necessity to such a man; solitude is welcome, leisure is the highest good, and everything else is unnecessary, nay, even burdensome.
This is the only type of man of whom it can be said that his centre of gravity is entirely in himself; which explains why it is that people of this sort—and they are very rare—, no matter how excellent their character may be, do not show that warm and unlimited interest in friends, family, and the community in general, of which others are so often capable; for if they have only themselves they are not inconsolable for the loss of everything else. This gives an isolation to their character, which is all the more effective since other people never really quite satisfy them, as being, on the whole, of a different nature: more, since this difference is constantly forcing itself upon their notice, they get accustomed to move about amongst mankind as alien beings, and in thinking of humanity in general, they say they instead of we.
”
”
Arthur Schopenhauer
“
Melancholy pervades me every time I enter a souvenir shop. I have been to many of them around the world. I try not to buy anything for multiple reasons. One of them is because I find the way souvenir shops represent a country or a culture problematic, to say the least. The items you find there are almost always either much better or much worse than the way locals do things. Each item is glorified or trivialized – depending on the taste of the manufacturer and the demand of the buyers. They are always designed to give you a presumed idyllic and warm feeling about the country from which you buy them. In reality, many locals strive to get close to owning some of the items displayed in souvenir shops. Moreover, even if locals use items like those displayed, their daily lives are never as romantic and as smooth as the feeling you get in these shops. In a sense, then, souvenir shops are places where people and their cultures are objectified and romanticized par excellence. Their human joys are amplified. Their grand sorrows are downplayed or buried altogether. Their real histories are either erased or diluted at best. Nevertheless, I confess to you, I always end up buying honey. Perhaps because bees represent life to me. Perhaps because I find that healthy bees and wildlife speak volumes about the overall health of a place and its people?
”
”
Louis Yako
“
Then she remembered robin’s nests and rainbows and redbud trees and
long drives
big skies
soft, worn blankets
black-eyed Susans
hammock naps
treehouses
red-eared sliders
acorn wreaths
fairy rings
birthday crowns
cupcake dinners
honeysuckle
lake water
fried catfish
summer storms
moments of shared intuition
the autumn tree line at dusk
being enveloped by the warm C of a loving body
being the enveloper
being in the presence of Someone who believes you have something worthwhile to say
being the one to whom important things are said
and bird wrists
and twig fingers
and strawberry moons
and finally: the symphony of hearts,
the internal music that plays when one decides to renew their partnership with life.
Yet the symphony had been playing faintly all along, a barely discernible underscore amid the noise of her going, going, long-term goaling, going, aiming, going, sweating, going, trying, going, failing, going, striving, doing, working, going, going, hiding, going, going, moving, going, going, excelling, perfecting, succeeding, winning, compartmentalizing, going, going, going, going, going. But now the call toward life was loud, swelling and triumphant—
like a brass section with one hundred instruments,
a musical theater ballad from a woman born to sing it,
or a rock band full of young unknown geniuses.
Suddenly, with such insatiable yearning, Wren wanted to fill her lungs. She did not choose to be born, but she chose, in this moment, to live.
”
”
Emily Habeck
“
Perfectionism is not the same thing as striving for excellence. Perfectionism is not about healthy achievement and growth. Perfectionism is a defensive move. It’s the belief that if we do things perfectly and look perfect, we can minimize or avoid the pain of blame, judgment, and shame. Perfectionism is a twenty-ton shield that we lug around, thinking it will protect us, when in fact it’s the thing that’s really preventing us from being seen. Perfectionism is not self-improvement. Perfectionism is, at its core, about trying to earn approval. Most perfectionists grew up being praised for achievement and performance (grades, manners, rule following, people pleasing, appearance, sports). Somewhere along the way, they adopted this dangerous and debilitating belief system: “I am what I accomplish and how well I accomplish it. Please. Perform. Perfect.” Healthy striving is self- focused: How can I improve? Perfectionism is other-focused: What will they think? Perfectionism is a hustle. Perfectionism is not the key to success. In fact, research shows that perfectionism hampers achievement. Perfectionism is correlated with depression, anxiety, addiction, and life paralysis or missed opportunities. The fear of failing, making mistakes, not meeting people’s expectations, and being criticized keeps us outside of the arena where healthy competition and striving unfolds. Last, perfectionism is not a way to avoid shame. Perfectionism is a form of shame. Where we struggle with perfectionism, we struggle with shame.
”
”
Brené Brown (Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead)
“
How to Change Name on Delta Flight Ticket -Customer Careline
If you need to change a name on your Delta Airlines flight ticket, +1(844)634-0511 the best way to start is by reaching out to customer service. Simply dial +1(844)634-0511 to speak with a live agent who can assist you with this process. It’s important to act quickly because changes made close to your travel date can sometimes be more complicated to manage.
To change a name on your ticket, you will need to +1(844)634-0511 provide necessary documentation. If the name correction is due to a spelling mistake or other minor error, you can usually fix it quickly with the help +1(844)634-0511 of a representative. However, for a more complex change, such as changing the passenger name entirely or making +1(844)634-0511 corrections for reasons like marriage, Delta Airlines may have specific policies in place.
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If you're wondering whether Delta Airlines will +1(844)634-0511 allow you to change the name entirely, it’s important to know that major name changes often require you to cancel your current reservation and book a new ticket. This is why calling +1(844)634-0511 as early as possible is essential to avoid any disruptions in your travel plans.
In addition to name changes, the customer service +1(844)634-0511 team can assist with boarding pass issues, ticket replacement, and even refund inquiries. Delta Airlines strives to offer excellent customer service, +1(844)634-0511 making sure you have a smooth experience every step of the way. If your ticket is refundable, the representative can help you understand your options when changing the passenger name on your reservation.
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Alexandre Dumas
“
And who knows (there is no saying with certainty), perhaps the only goal on earth to which mankind is striving
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lies in this incessant process of attaining, in other words, in life itself, and not in the thing to be attained, which must always be expressed as a formula, as positive as twice two makes four, and such positiveness is not life, gentlemen, but is the beginning of death. Anyway, man has always been afraid of this mathematical certainty, and I am afraid of it now. Granted that man does nothing but seek that math- ematical certainty, he traverses oceans, sacri ces his life in the quest, but to succeed, really to nd it, dreads, I assure you. He feels that when he has found it there will be noth- ing for him to look for. When workmen have nished their work they do at least receive their pay, they go to the tavern, then they are taken to the police-station—and there is oc- cupation for a week. But where can man go? Anyway, one can observe a certain awkwardness about him when he has attained such objects. He loves the process of attaining, but does not quite like to have attained, and that, of course, is very absurd. In fact, man is a comical creature; there seems to be a kind of jest in it all. But yet mathematical certainty is a er all, something insu erable. Twice two makes four seems to me simply a piece of insolence. Twice two makes four is a pert coxcomb who stands with arms akimbo bar- ring your path and spitting. I admit that twice two makes four is an excellent thing, but if we are to give everything its due, twice two makes ve is sometimes a very charming thing too.
And why are you so rmly, so triumphantly, convinced that only the normal and the positive—in other words, only what is conducive to welfare—is for the advantage of man?
Notes from the Underground
Is not reason in error as regards advantage? Does not man, perhaps, love something besides well-being? Perhaps he is just as fond of su ering? Perhaps su ering is just as great a bene t to him as well-being? Man is sometimes extraor- dinarily, passionately, in love with su ering, and that is a fact. ere is no need to appeal to universal history to prove that; only ask yourself, if you are a man and have lived at all. As far as my personal opinion is concerned, to care only for well-being seems to me positively ill-bred. Whether it’s good or bad, it is sometimes very pleasant, too, to smash things. I hold no brief for su ering nor for well-being either. I am standing for ... my caprice, and for its being guaran- teed to me when necessary. Su ering would be out of place in vaudevilles, for instance; I know that. In the ‘Palace of Crystal’ it is unthinkable; su ering means doubt, negation, and what would be the good of a ‘palace of crystal’ if there could be any doubt about it? And yet I think man will never renounce real su ering, that is, destruction and chaos. Why, su ering is the sole origin of consciousness. ough I did lay it down at the beginning that consciousness is the great- est misfortune for man, yet I know man prizes it and would not give it up for any satisfaction. Consciousness, for in- stance, is in nitely superior to twice two makes four. Once you have mathematical certainty there is nothing le to do or to understand. ere will be nothing le but to bottle up your ve senses and plunge into contemplation. While if you stick to consciousness, even though the same result is attained, you can at least og yourself at times, and that will, at any rate, liven you up. Reactionary as it is, corporal
punishment is better than nothing.
”
”
Fyodor Dostoevsky
“
10 Practical Strategies to Improve Your Critical Thinking Skills and Unleash Your Creativity
In today's rapidly changing world, the ability to think critically and creatively has become more important than ever. Whether you're a student looking to excel academically, a professional striving for success in your career, or simply someone who wants to navigate life's challenges with confidence, developing strong critical thinking skills is crucial. In this blog post, we will explore ten practical strategies to help you improve your critical thinking abilities and unleash your creative potential.
1. Embrace open-mindedness:
One of the cornerstones of critical thinking is being open to different viewpoints and perspectives. Cultivate a willingness to listen to others, consider alternative opinions, and challenge your own beliefs. This practice expands your thinking and encourages creative problem-solving.
2. Ask thought-provoking questions:
Asking insightful questions is a powerful way to stimulate critical thinking. By questioning assumptions, seeking clarity, and exploring deeper meanings, you can uncover new insights and perspectives. Challenge yourself to ask thought-provoking questions regularly.
3. Practice active listening:
Listening actively involves not just hearing, but also understanding, interpreting, and empathizing with the speaker. By honing your active listening skills, you can better grasp complex ideas, identify underlying assumptions, and engage in more meaningful discussions.
4. Seek diverse sources of information:
Expand your knowledge base by seeking information from a wide range of sources. Engage with diverse perspectives, opinions, and ideas through books, articles, podcasts, and documentaries. This habit broadens your understanding and encourages critical thinking by exposing you to different viewpoints.
5. Develop analytical thinking skills:
Analytical thinking involves breaking down complex problems into smaller components, examining relationships and patterns, and drawing logical conclusions. Enhance your analytical skills by practicing activities like puzzles, riddles, and brain teasers. This will sharpen your ability to analyze information and think critically.
6. Foster a growth mindset:
A growth mindset is the belief that your abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work. Embracing this mindset encourages you to view challenges as opportunities for growth, rather than obstacles. By persisting through difficulties, you build resilience and enhance your critical thinking abilities.
7. Engage in collaborative problem-solving:
Collaborating with others on problem-solving tasks can spark creativity and strengthen critical thinking skills. Seek out group projects, brainstorming sessions, or online forums where you can exchange ideas, challenge each other's thinking, and find innovative solutions together.
8. Practice reflective thinking:
Taking time to reflect on your thoughts, actions, and experiences allows you to gain deeper insights and learn from past mistakes. Regularly engage in activities like journaling, meditation, or self-reflection exercises to develop your reflective thinking skills. This practice enhances your critical thinking abilities by promoting self-awareness and self-improvement.
9. Encourage creativity through experimentation:
Creativity and critical thinking often go hand in hand. Give yourself permission to experiment and explore new ideas without fear of failure. Embrace a "what if" mindset and push the boundaries of your thinking. This willingness to take risks and think outside the box can lead to breakthroughs in critical thinking.
10. Continuously learn and adapt:
Critical thinking is a skill that can be honed throughout your life. Commit to lifelong learning and seek opportunities to expand your knowledge and skills. Stay curious, be open to new experiences, and embrace change.
”
”
Lillian Addison
“
Excellence is the gateway to an infinite world of possibilities
”
”
Iain Cameron Williams
“
We urge you to strive for excellence, not perfection.
”
”
Brian P. Moran (The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 Months)
“
But you knights … you kill. You strive hard to excel at it. You have fine words – beautiful, noble words like preux and courage to describe yourselves and your way.’ He pursed his lips. ‘Sometimes, I wonder if your way is not altogether wrong.
”
”
Christian Cameron (The Long Sword (Chivalry, #2))
“
The decision of the amateur to remain locked in a mediocre life, and that of the pro who decides to discipline himself to excellence, are both responses to the recognition that life consists of suffering. Yet while the amateur seeks relief from the pain of life primarily through the numbing effects of addictions and the pursuit of pleasures, the pro strives to rise above his suffering through what Pressfield calls “labor and love”. Some people are lucky in that they find a calling early in life and commit to turning pro with little thought as to what they are doing. For others, however, the choice to turn pro requires many wasted years drifting in despair, before the realization strikes that a change to a more purpose-driven life is needed.
”
”
Academy of Ideas
“
After coming to the realization that one’s inner self, or soul, is all important, Socrates believed the next step in the path towards self knowledge was to obtain knowledge of what is good and what is evil, and in the process use what one learns to cultivate the good within one’s soul and purge the evil from it. Most people dogmatically assume they know what is truly good and what is truly evil. They regard things such as wealth, status, pleasure, and social acceptance as the greatest of all goods in life, and think that poverty, death, pain, and social rejection are the greatest of all evils. However, Socrates disagreed with these answers, and also believed this view to be extremely harmful. All human beings naturally strive after happiness, thought Socrates, for happiness is the final end in life and everything we do we do because we think it will make us happy. We therefore label what we think will bring us happiness as ‘good’, and those things we think will bring us suffering and pain as ‘evil’. So it follows that if we have a mistaken conception of what is good, then we will spend our lives frantically chasing after things that will not bring us happiness even if we attain them. However, according to Socrates if one devoted themselves to self-knowledge and philosophical inquiry, they would soon be led to a more appropriate view of the good. There is one supreme good, he claimed, and possession of this good alone will secure our happiness. This supreme good, thought Socrates, is virtue. Virtue is defined as moral excellence, and an individual is considered virtuous if their character is made up of the moral qualities that are accepted as virtues. In Ancient Greece commonly accepted virtues included courage, temperance, prudence, and justice. Socrates held virtue to be the greatest good in life because it alone was capable of securing ones happiness. Even death is a trivial matter for the truly virtuous individual who realizes that the most important thing in life is the state of his soul and the actions which spring from it.
”
”
Academy of Ideas
“
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Timber Hitchings Professional Tree Care
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In most cases what we perceive as ‘perfection’ is rarely attainable. However, if you continuously strive for excellence, you will be pleasantly surprised by just how close you can get.
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Craig J. Tomsky
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Goutos London
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Which company is best for using construction Project work?
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Sustainability Focus: The project places a strong emphasis on sustainability and environmentally conscious practices. Energy-efficient processes, recycling initiatives, and waste reduction strategies are integrated into the manufacturing process to minimize the ecological footprint.
Employment Opportunities: Shree Siva Balaaji Steels contributes to local economies by creating employment opportunities across various skill levels, from skilled labor to technical experts. This helps stimulate economic growth in the region surrounding the manufacturing facility.
Collaboration and Partnerships: The project fosters collaborations with suppliers, distributors, and clients, establishing strong relationships within the steel industry. This network facilitates efficient supply chain management and enables the company to provide tailored solutions to its customers.
Innovation and Research: The project invests in research and development to constantly improve manufacturing processes, product quality, and the development of new steel products. This dedication to innovation positions the company at the forefront of the steel industry.
Community Engagement: Shree Siva Balaaji Steels is committed to engaging with local communities and implementing corporate social responsibility initiatives. These efforts include supporting education, healthcare, and other community-centric projects, fostering goodwill and positive impact.
Vision:
The Shree Siva Balaaji Steels project envisions becoming a leading name in the steel manufacturing sector, renowned for its exceptional quality, technological innovation, and sustainability practices. By adhering to its core values of integrity, excellence, and environmental responsibility, the project strives to contribute positively to the industry and the communities it operates within.
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shree sivabalaaji steels
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Jewish teachings have inspired my professional ambitions and personal values. They have helped me build an empowering spiritual life and taught me to make my words count for the good. I will always continue to stand up proudly as a Jew even during dark times. Because a brighter tomorrow is sure to come.
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Judy Gruen (Bylines and Blessings: Overcoming Obstacles, Striving for Excellence, and Redefining Success)
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That afternoon when I forgot about my kids, I was jolted into realizing how much of my sense of self and even my sense of worth was bonded to my writing. That’s why I could so easily become engrossed in my work, even forgetting I had children while I joyously ruminated over word choices: Should it be dismayed or distraught? How about perturbed? Would discomposed sound too Victorian? Time really flies when luxuriating over the 1,300-plus pages of a Roget’s Thesaurus.
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Judy Gruen (Bylines and Blessings: Overcoming Obstacles, Striving for Excellence, and Redefining Success)
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The moment was raw, and our nation was traumatized, but of course humor and comedy would return—and soon—because it had to. Humor isn’t a luxury; it’s a survival tool. It releases anxieties from shared fears and concerns. It lets us laugh at the absurd, and even at evil. We need this.
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Judy Gruen (Bylines and Blessings: Overcoming Obstacles, Striving for Excellence, and Redefining Success)
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Keep learning, keep growing, and keep striving for success. Do whatever it takes to make the ultimate grand entrance into the door of greatness. Let that motivate you to espouse excellence.
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Gift Gugu Mona (365 Motivational Life Lessons)
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Keep learning, keep growing and keep striving for success. Do whatever it takes to make the ultimate grand entrance into the door of greatness. Let that motivate you to espouse excellence.
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Gift Gugu Mona (365 Motivational Life Lessons)
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Apex Roofing is a family-owned business that serves the New Jersey area, located at 811 Church Road Suite 105 Cherry Hill, NJ 08002. Our company has been in business for over 30 years and we excel at all roofing aspects including: emergency roof repair, new construction, maintenance, and more. Our team is committed to quality and customer satisfaction, we strive to exceed expectations. With a dedicated team of skilled professionals, we prioritize safety, efficiency, and attention to detail.
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Apex Commercial Roofing
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Shame is the birthplace of perfectionism. Perfectionism is not striving to be our best or working toward excellence. Healthy striving is internally driven. Perfectionism is externally driven by a simple but potentially all-consuming question: What will people think?
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Brené Brown (Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience)
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All those people who have achieved greatness in their life have one thing in common as a personality trait within them that is "Discipline". They follow a routine and they are constantly striving towards excellence. If you have a million-dollar dream but lacks discipline, your dream will be your dream only it will not become a reality. Great people have mastered discipline in their life and without discipline, they are just people without greatness.
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Aiyaz Uddin (Science Behind A Perfect Life)
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True Built Fencing is your trusted local Austin fencing company. We take pride in using only quality/sustainable materials with attention to detail in installation. True Built Fencing is fully insured and can fully meet your fencing needs & expectation. We also highly value communication and transparency. Our company strives serve all of our customers with excellence so that you feel like your project is the primary project. At True Built Fencing, you will find that humility and integrity is an integral part of our business and the core of each of our team members.
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True Built Fencing
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Just as a reminder from Chapter 4, perfectionism is not teaching them how to strive for excellence or be their best selves. Perfectionism is teaching them to value what other people think over what they think or how they feel. It’s teaching them to perform, please, and prove. Unfortunately, I have many examples from my own life.
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Brené Brown (Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead)
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Internationally benchmark - Quality and Regulatory systems
Delwis Healthcare strives to meet the GOALS by specifically focusing on the basic fundamentals of Excellence - Innovation, Quality and Service. We believe that customer satisfaction, in terms of quality, delivery and after sales services, is our first and foremost responsibility.
This objective is achieved by following Good Manufacturing Practices and Local & International Rules and Regulations applicable to our operations. Delwis Healthcare is awarded the ISO 9001:2015. With an outstanding track record for maintaining quality, we continue to operate as one of the India's top-notch Quality Control and Analytical Research Laboratories.
Quality Control
Delwis Healthcare focuses on Quality Control (QC) and Quality assurance (QA) as these are our strengths and the key differentiators. Strict adherence to cGMP norms as well as our efforts towards continuous improvement of our Product, Processes and the Skills of our work force enables us to improve our offerings to our customers and consumers on a regular basis.
We have a modern and well-equipped Quality Control (QC) Laboratory, which ensures that our products are Pure, Safe and Effective and are released only after thorough analysis as per stringent specifications, methods and procedures developed according to international guidelines.
Our QC department has all the necessary instruments for the Analysis of API, Finished Products, Packaging, and Related Materials used.
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Delwis Healthcare - Quality Control (QC) and Quality Assurance (QA)
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order of things, including loyalty to one’s country; prudentia, the foresight and wisdom gained from personal experience or that of others; salubritas, the belief in wholesomeness and cleanliness; severitas, the ability to maintain self-control; and veritas, the belief in the value of truth over falsehood. Roman citizens were also expected to live up to a set of publicly shared virtues, among which were aequitas, the belief that it was morally right to act fairly within government and with the people; fides, that in all dealings a man should act in good faith; iustitia, that citizens should expect justice and fair treatment before the law; libertas, the belief in freedom for all citizens; and nobilitas, the expectation that a Roman should strive for excellence in all he did.
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Lindsay Powell (Germanicus: The Magnificent Life and Mysterious Death of Rome's Most Popular General)
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Strive to be a well-versed professional with high esthetic standards and a passion for excellence.
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Germany Kent
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If you want to be successful in your career, strive to be a well-versed professional with high esthetic standards and a passion for excellence.
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Germany Kent
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When you strive for excellence, excellence is the only thing you will never achieve, but it makes all other things attainable.
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Eduardo Clemente
“
If Winston Churchill was right that democracy is nothing more than “the worst form of Government except for all those other forms,” it is worth focusing on the minimal yet fundamental task at which democracies seem to excel: avoiding catastrophic outcomes and striving for stability and resilience to unpredictable shocks. Because even if we can’t agree on exactly the kind of society we want to live in, we can typically come to a consensus on the worst outcomes we want to avoid, such as imposing harm on individuals, being cruel to disadvantaged populations, and creating second-class citizens.
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Rob Reich (System Error: How Big Tech Disrupted Everything and Why We Must Reboot)
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Turned loose from the myth of human omniscience, we find we are free to mind our own business. The business of every believer is to strive to understand what God has revealed. What he has revealed is sufficient for salvation, needful for godliness, and supremely worth of meditation. It is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. it becomes the filter through which we learn to choose wisely what additional knowledge is good for our souls. And in choosing well, we employ our minds in loving God as they ought.
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Jen Wilkin (None Like Him: 10 Ways God Is Different from Us (and Why That's a Good Thing))
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The relentless drive is why bankers, in any field, are always hungry for more and natural achievers. Their commitment to staying ahead, solving problems, and building trust pushes them to continuously strive for excellence and success.
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Seun Sylvester Opaleye
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Additionally, SEO group buy providers often provide excellent customer support. They understand the importance of their services to their customers' success, and therefore, strive to offer assistance and guidance whenever needed. This level of support can be invaluable, especially for those who are new to SEO or may require help navigating the various tools and features.
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seogroupsbuytools.com
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As early as the first grade, my school was putting students into “learning tracks,” plucking out a slim handful of overachievers for higher-level learning and leaving the other students behind, investing less in them, assigning them to a lower place inside the larger system. We may have been too young to articulate what was happening around us, but I think many of us sensed it. You were aware that if you made one mistake, or had one stumble, or there was one distracting crisis at home, you could be immediately and often permanently relegated to the group that got less. When you’re a child in this sort of environment, you can palpably sense the fact that your opportunities are few and that they disappear quickly. Success is like a lifeboat that must be leapt after. Striving for excellence is an attempt not to drown.
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Michelle Obama (The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times)
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The great cricketer Virat Kohli said in an interview that he does not try for excellence in cricket. Rather he believes in a concept called 'betterment' - to become better each day than your former self.
I believe there is an amazing depth in his words. The philosophy is simple yet profound . If you stay focussed in any field, then you would eventually become adept in that field.
By consistently doing your work better each day, you would get closer to achieving your best or excellence. Whether your field may be sports, theatre, writing, acting, dancing, photography, cooking, painting, singing, research, science, business, politics or teaching - one day you become a legend.
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Avijeet Das
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If you really want this acceptance, then you need to display that now. Acceptance into the college of your choice may happen, but it likely won’t happen from mediocrity or luck. Put in the time and effort, do the research, and constantly strive for excellence on a daily basis. This needs to be a fundamental aspect of your mindset as a student.
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AY Shih (The College Admissions Blueprint: 9 Proven Steps from Application to Acceptance)
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Life is fleeting, and we have limited chances to make our mark; we don't get a chance to do many things. We must seize every opportunity to excel, for our choices define our legacy. Life is a delicate dance of moments, we all strive to shape our story for eternity.
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Carson Anekeya
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A definite view, by contrast, favors firm convictions. Instead of pursuing many-sided mediocrity and calling it “well-roundedness,” a definite person determines the one best thing to do and then does it. Instead of working tirelessly to make herself indistinguishable, she strives to be great at something substantive—to be a monopoly of one. This is not what young people do today, because everyone around them has long since lost faith in a definite world. No one gets into Stanford by excelling at just one thing, unless that thing happens to involve throwing or catching a leather ball.
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Anonymous
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You have what it takes to finish excellently if you strive toward it
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Sunday Adelaja
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Break out to go out:
The birds dare to break the egg shell
It does so in order to get out of that Hell
When it finally succeeds, it’ll then fly
To its comfort zone it’ll say bye
Are you being confined in a small space
How long will you remain at that place?
Before you can explore more territories,
Break away from the former glories.
Yesterday’s excellence is today’s average
You must strive to be better age after age
Never accept the available mediocrity
As the only preferable opportunity
Decide to grow from below to hero
And make it a point to vacate level zero
Reach out and arise with power
God’s blessings on you, will shower
Agree to grow, never attempt to be slow
Be not afraid. Never doubt. You’ll flow
The grace of God will be your guide
Taking you along, side by side.
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Israelmore Ayivor (Become a Better You)
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When I go to prayer,” confessed an eminent Christian, “I find my heart so loath to go to God, and when it is with Him, so loath to stay.” Then he pointed to the need for self-discipline. “When you feel most indisposed to pray, yield not to it,” he counseled, “but strive and endeavor to pray, even when you think you cannot.
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J. Oswald Sanders (Spiritual Leadership: Principles of Excellence For Every Believer (Sanders Spiritual Growth Series))
“
The will to win begins in your mind.
So constantly strive for excellence and greatness in your time.
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Timothy Pina (Bullying Ben: How Benjamin Franklin Overcame Bullying)
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several hundred thousand dollars in a challenging, relevant, and exciting systemic overhaul of our entire organization, focusing on our core competencies while maintaining full and listening cooperation with the communities we are proud to serve. We fully realize that our energetic attempts to mobilize the flawed infrastructure we inherited have been less than totally satisfactory, and hope and trust that our valued and loyal customers will bear with us in the coming months as we interact synergistically with change management in our striving for excellence. That is our mission.” An
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Terry Pratchett (Going Postal (Discworld, #33; Industrial Revolution, #4; Moist von Lipwig, #1))
“
When rewards ignore individual performance, the incentive to strive for excellence is lost.
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Frank Sonnenberg (Follow Your Conscience: Make a Difference in Your Life & in the Lives of Others)
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When you strive for excellence in leadership, then you will excel as a leader.
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Gift Gugu Mona
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Muadh b. Jabal said, concerning [the excellence of] teaching and seeking knowledge, and I have seen it narrated directly from the Prophet SAW, 'Pursue knowledge, for pursuing it is reverence to God, seeking it is devotion, studying it with others is glorification, searching it out is striving in the path of God, teaching it to one who lacks knowledge is charity, bestowing it freely on those worthy of it brings proximity [to God]. [Knowledge] is an intimate companion in solitude, a friend in retreat, and a guide to religion; it heartens one in ease and difficulty; it is a vizier among noble companions and a close friend among strangers; it is a guiding light on the path to heaven. God elevates people [through knowledge], making them leaders, lords, and guides who are followed on the path of excellence; they are exemplars in goodness, their traces are followed closely and their comportment is closely noted; the angels seek out intimate friendship with them, and with their wings stroke them; every [creature] of the field or the desert seeks forgiveness for them, even the fish and the sea snakes of the oceans, the wild animals of dry land and its grazing beasts, [even] the heavens and its stars. All this because knowledge is the life of the heart [protecting it] from blindness, the light of eyesight [protecting it] from darkness, and the strength of the body [sustaining it] from weakness. The servant attains thought it the stations of the upright and loftiest degrees. Reflection on it equals fasting, and studying it with others equals devotion [i.e., superogatory prayers] through the night. Through it, God is obeyed, by it He is worshipped, by it His unity is affirmed, by it He is lauded, and by it He is approached with piety. By it family ties are maintained, and by it lawful and unlawful are known. Knowledge is the leader, and deeds his followers. Those who will be happy are inspired by it, and those who will be miserable are kept from it.
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Abu Hamid al-Ghazali
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Distinguish yourself
I mentioned Daniel in the previous chapter. The scripture says he had an excellent spirit. As a teenager, he was brought out of Judah into Babylon. The king had all these young men in training and the best of them--the smartest, strongest, and most talented--would be chosen as the next leaders.
They had a certain diet for them to eat and certain programs for them to follow. But Daniel had made a vow to God to always honor Him. The Babylonians worshiped idols. Daniel was respectful, but he wouldn’t eat the king’s fancy foods. He didn’t just go along with what everyone else was doing. He made the more excellent choice.
Daniel 6:3 says, “Daniel so distinguished himself by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to put him over the whole kingdom.” Notice it doesn’t say: “God distinguished him and he got promoted.” It says Daniel distinguished himself. The message translation says, “Daniel completely outclassed the others.”
That’s what happens when, number one, you honor God and, number two, you have an excellent spirit. You don’t compromise. You don’t just go with the flow and do what everyone else is doing.
Even if everyone else is late, everyone else cuts corners, and everyone else is undisciplined, you should do as Daniel did and go the extra mile. Make the choice to be excellent.
The scripture goes on to say Daniel was ten times smarter than the other young men. He had incredible wisdom and understanding. He could interpret dreams and visions. When you have an excellent spirit, God will give you unprecedented favor, creativity, and ideas so that, like Daniel, you will stand out in the crowd. In humility, you will outclass those who don’t honor God.
My question is: Are you distinguishing yourself and not waiting for God to do it? Are you going the extra mile? Are you doing more than you have to? Are you improving your skills?
Examine your life. We all have areas in which we can strive for excellence, whether it’s how we treat people, how we present ourselves, or how we develop our skills. Don’t let something small keep you from the big things God wants to do. You are called to be a cut above. You have excellence on the inside. It’s who you are. Now do your part and be disciplined to bring out your excellence.
If you’ll have this spirit of excellence, God will breathe in your direction and cause you to stand out. You’ll look up and be more creative, more skilled, more talented, and wiser with more ideas. I believe and declare that like Daniel, you will outperform, you will outclass, and you will outshine, and God will promote you and set you in a place of honor. You can, you will.
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Joel Osteen (You Can You Will: 8 Undeniable Qualities of a Winner)
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Not every Christian is called to major leadership in the church, but every Christian is a leader, for we all influence others. All of us should strive to improve our leadership skills.
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J. Oswald Sanders (Spiritual Leadership: Principles of Excellence for Every Believer (Sanders Spiritual Growth Series))
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Prize fighting glorifies violence, exploits the poor, exalts force over reason, glamorizes atavism. It is these very horrors, however, so reprehensible by themselves, which highlight all that is noble in the ring. Courage, the quest for excellence, the overcoming of fear, dreams of transcending one’s social and physical handicaps, boxers’ poetic harmony of mind and body, their competitive strivings past all reasonable human limits - the ring’s dark barbarism makes such qualities glow like fireflies on a Southern night.
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Elliott J. Gorn (The Manly Art: Bare-Knuckle Prize Fighting in America)
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Everyone is imperfect.” Mohandas Gandhi was imperfect and Joseph Stalin was imperfect, but they were not the same shade of imperfection. “Everyone is imperfect” is an excellent example of replacing a two-color view with a one-color view. If you say, “No one is perfect, but some people are less imperfect than others,” you may not gain applause; but for those who strive to do better, you have held out hope. No one is perfectly imperfect, after all.
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Eliezer Yudkowsky (Rationality: From AI to Zombies)
“
Notably, one item was not on our list: Find the person responsible who typed the wrong command and punish him or her. Some people may question that decision, reasoning that as valuable as creating a trusting environment can be, responsibility without accountability can undermine an expectation of excellence. I’m all for accountability. But in this case, my reasoning went like this: Our people have good intentions. To think you can control or prevent random problems by making an example of someone is naïve and wrongheaded. Moreover, if you say it is important to let the people you work with solve their own problems, then you must behave like you mean it. Drill down, certainly, to make sure everyone understands how important it is that we strive to avoid such problems in the future. But always—always—walk your talk.
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Ed Catmull (Creativity, Inc.: an inspiring look at how creativity can - and should - be harnessed for business success by the founder of Pixar)
“
Paul believed that self-control was so important that when he had opportunity to witness to a very important ruler, it was one of the three main topics he spoke about.3 But Paul wasn't the only one who talked about it. Peter also
wrote about self-control and said that it helps us to avoid becoming useless and unfruitful. He wrote that Christians are to strive diligently to grow in moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love (2 Peter 1:5-7). All of these virtues are intertwined and are necessary for your usefulness and fruitfulness to Christ. Growing in these qualities is so important that "he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins" (2 Peter 1:9).
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Elyse M. Fitzpatrick (Love to Eat, Hate to Eat: Breaking the Bondage of Destructive Eating Habits)
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For a person who strives for excellence, one’s own satisfaction is often more valuable than others’ appreciation.
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Amey Hegde (Inspire To Reach Higher Lite Edition: A-Z Empowering Quotes That I.N.S.P.I.R.E.)
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When you come up a bit short on excellence, you still win. When you strive for perfect, you’re just never quite good enough.
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Dawn Gluskin
“
Management from an architecture perspective is about Striving toward technology excellence Delivering projects Resolving issues Partnering with executives Managing your time Grooming technical talent Enhancing your skill set These areas of management for architects are always in contention with one another. Change is a constant within these areas; the key is to learn to balance and prioritize these conflicting forces.
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Anonymous
“
Don’t strive to create the most original ideas, strive to create the best products and services on the market. Learn and copy great ideas as much as possible. It is essential for creating excellent ideas and your success in business.
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Andrii Sedniev (The Business Idea Factory: A World-Class System for Creating Successful Business Ideas)
“
The challenge therefore, as you strive for success, is to make it a habit to live your life on purpose. You must learn to make deliberate plans and then practice the art and science of doing things on purpose.
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Archibald Marwizi (Making Success Deliberate)
“
As you strive for personal effectiveness and leadership excellence, there are local and global questions that you will inevitably have to face. These range from poverty, corruption, terrorism, food security, scarcity of resources and overpopulation among others. Your power and influence for significance in leadership excellence will increase in direct proportion to your ability to find effective and sustainable practical solutions to some of these real-life challenges.
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Archibald Marwizi (Making Success Deliberate)
“
Section 3. Confirmed also by the vain endeavours of the wicked to banish all fear of God from their minds. Conclusion, that the knowledge of God is naturally implanted in the human mind. All men of sound judgement will therefore hold, that a sense of Deity is indelibly engraven on the human heart. And that this belief is naturally engendered in all, and thoroughly fixed as it were in our very bones, is strikingly attested by the contumacy of the wicked, who, though they struggle furiously, are unable to extricate themselves from the fear of God. Though Diagoras[4], and others of like stamps make themselves merry with whatever has been believed in all ages concerning religion, and Dionysus scoffs at the judgement of heaven, it is but a Sardonian grin; for the worm of conscience, keener than burning steel, is gnawing them within. I do not say with Cicero, that errors wear out by age, and that religion increases and grows better day by day. For the world (as will be shortly seen) labours as much as it can to shake off all knowledge of God, and corrupts his worship in innumerable ways. I only say, that, when the stupid hardness of heart, which the wicked eagerly court as a means of despising God, becomes enfeebled, the sense of Deity, which of all things they wished most to be extinguished, is still in vigour, and now and then breaks forth. Whence we infer, that this is not a doctrine which is first learned at school, but one as to which every man is, from the womb, his own master; one which nature herself allows no individual to forget, though many, with all their might, strive to do so. Moreover, if all are born and live for the express purpose of learning to know God, and if the knowledge of God, in so far as it fails to produce this effect, is fleeting and vain, it is clear that all those who do not direct the whole thoughts and actions of their lives to this end fail to fulfil the law of their being. This did not escape the observation even of philosophers. For it is the very thing which Plato meant (in Phoed. et Theact.) when he taught, as he often does, that the chief good of the soul consists in resemblance to God; i.e., when, by means of knowing him, she is wholly transformed into him. Thus Gryllus, also, in Plutarch, (lib. guod bruta anim. ratione utantur,) reasons most skilfully, when he affirms that, if once religion is banished from the lives of men, they not only in no respect excel, but are, in many respects, much more wretched than the brutes, since, being exposed to so many forms of evil, they continually drag on a troubled and restless existence: that the only thing, therefore, which makes them superior is the worship of God, through which alone they aspire to immortality.
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John Calvin (Institutes of the Christian Religion)
“
Make success happen by striving and working to be the best. Aim at excellence and hit the target.
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Mark LaMoure (Step into Your Vision 2.0: 24 Inspirational Leaders Share Their Goal-Setting Secrets)
“
Men of genuine excellence, in every station of life—men of industry, of integrity, of high principle, of sterling honesty of purpose—command the spontaneous homage of mankind. It is natural to believe in such men, to have confidence in them, and to imitate them. All that is good in the world is upheld by them, and without their presence in it the world would not be worth living in. Although genius always commands admiration, character most secures respect. The former is more the product of brain-power, the latter of heart-power; and in the long run it is the heart that rules in life. Men of genius stand to society in the relation of its intellect, as men of character of its conscience; and while the former are admired, the latter are followed. Great men are always exceptional men; and greatness itself is but comparative. Indeed, the range of most men in life is so limited, that very few have the opportunity of being great. But each man can act his part honestly and honourably, and to the best of his ability. He can use his gifts, and not abuse them. He can strive to make the best of life.
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Samuel Smiles (Character)
“
I see you've brought a friend back from America with you," he said, after some time. "Yes. Amy. She's been my polestar, and my salvation." "She's striking. Quite exotic, if I do say so myself." "Yes, she is." Another pause. And then, Gareth asked impulsively, "Do you love her?" Charles dragged his head up and regarded his brother with what was almost a smile. "Yes." He looked beyond Gareth's shoulder, out the window and over the downs, his gaze fixed on some distant point that only he could see. "And this time, it is for real, I think." "You ought to marry her." "I can't." "Why not?" "I am not ready to be anyone's husband." As Gareth started to protest, Charles murmured, "She deserves more than a washed out shell of a man whose courage and confidence are in tatters, who can't offer her much of anything, who is less than perfect." "What a load of bollocks." "I beg your pardon?" "I said, what a load of bollocks. Really, Charles, you haven't changed a damn bit, have you?" "I don't know what you're talking about." "Look at you, striving to be perfect, just as you ever were. Won't do anything unless you can do it to your own ridiculous standards of excellence. Well, let me tell you something. Being a husband means learning as you go along; you don't go into it already knowing everything there is to know, and can't expect to. You make mistakes, and you learn by them.
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Danelle Harmon (The Beloved One (The De Montforte Brothers, #2))
“
perfectionism is not teaching them how to strive for excellence or be their best selves. Perfectionism is teaching them to value what other people think over what they think or how they feel. It’s teaching them to perform, please, and prove.
”
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Brené Brown (Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead)
“
There is no old age like anxiety,” said one of the monks I met in India. “And there is no freedom from old age like the freedom from anxiety.”
In desperate love, we always invent the characters of our partners, demanding that they be what we need of them, and then feeling devastated when they refuse to perform the role we created in the first place.
Generally speaking, though, Americans have an inability to relax into sheer pleasure. Ours is an entertainment-seeking nation, but not necessarily a pleasure-seeking one. Americans spend billions to keep themselves amused with everything from porn to theme parks to wars, but that’s not exactly the same thing as quiet enjoyment.
The beauty of doing nothing is the goal of all your work, the final accomplishment for which you are most highly congratulated. The more exquisitely and delightfully you can do nothing, the higher your life’s achievement. You don’t necessarily need to be rich in order to experience this, either.
I am having a relationship with this pizza, almost an affair.
Without seeing Sicily one cannot get a clear idea of what Italy is.
“No town can live peacefully, whatever its laws,” Plato wrote, “when its citizens…do nothing but feast and drink and tire themselves out in the cares of love.”
In a world of disorder and disaster and fraud, sometimes only beauty can be trusted. Only artistic excellence is incorruptible. Pleasure cannot be bargained down. And sometimes the meal is the only currency that is real.
The idea that the appreciation of pleasure can be an anchor of one’s humanity.
You should never give yourself a chance to fall apart because, when you do, it becomes a tendency and it happens over and over again. You must practice staying strong, instead.
People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that’s what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that’s holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life. A true soul mate is probably the most important person you’ll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake. But to live with a soul mate forever? Nah. Too painful. Soul mates, they come into your life just to reveal another layer of yourself to you, and then they leave. They break your heart open so new light could get in, make you so desperate and out of control that you had to transform your life.
The Zen masters always say that you cannot see your reflection in running water, only in still water.
Your treasure—your perfection—is within you already. But to claim it, you must leave the busy commotion of the mind and abandon the desires of the ego and enter into the silence of the heart.
Balinese families are always allowed to eat their own donations to the gods, since the offering is more metaphysical than literal. The way the Balinese see it, God takes what belongs to God—the gesture—while man takes what belongs to man—the food itself.)
To meditate, only you must smile. Smile with face, smile with mind, and good energy will come to you and clean away dirty energy. Even smile in your liver. Practice tonight at hotel. Not to hurry, not to try too hard. Too serious, you make you sick. You can calling the good energy with a smile.
The word paradise, by the way, which comes to us from the Persian, means literally “a walled garden.”
The four virtues a person needs in order to be safe and happy in life: intelligence, friendship, strength and (I love this one) poetry.
Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it.
Once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it, you must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it.
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Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love)
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Philosophical eudaimonia is a condition in which a person of excellent character is living optimally well, flourishing, doing admirably, and steadily enjoying the best mindset that is available to human beings. The Stoics in particular took the complete attainment of such a condition to be well-nigh impossible, yet so worth striving for that no human being who grasped its attractions would wish to settle for less. (Long, 2002, p. 193)
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Donald J. Robertson (Stoicism and the Art of Happiness: Practical wisdom for everyday life: embrace perseverance, strength and happiness with stoic philosophy (Teach Yourself))
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Never stop dreaming, never stop striving for excellence
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Luvvie Ajayi Jones (Professional Troublemaker: The Fear-Fighter Manual)
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Dear Daughter,
Do not settle for mediocrity. Strive for excellence in everything you do.
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Gift Gugu Mona (Dear Daughter: Short and Sweet Messages for a Queen)
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Dear Daughter,
The best is in store for those who work hard and strive for excellence. Be one of those.
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Gift Gugu Mona (Dear Daughter: Short and Sweet Messages for a Queen)
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Dear Daughter,
When you strive for excellence, people will see how brilliant you are. Therefore, go out there, excel and become the best.
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Gift Gugu Mona (Dear Daughter: Short and Sweet Messages for a Queen)
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Whenever you want to know what to seek or avoid, look to your Highest Good, the aim of your entire life,” because whatever we do should be in harmony with that.19 While the idea that “a person should live according to their Highest Good” might sound a bit strange to our modern ears, it made perfect sense to the Roman Stoics. They also knew exactly what that Highest Good was for them: it was always striving to live in a way that is honorable and rational, with excellence of character, by aligning your life with the four cardinal virtues of wisdom, courage, moderation, and justice.
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David Fideler (Breakfast with Seneca: A Stoic Guide to the Art of Living)
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Strive for excellence. Elbert Hubbard said, “The best preparation for good work tomorrow is to do good work today.
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John C. Maxwell (The Maxwell Daily Reader: 365 Days of Insight to Develop the Leader Within You and Influence Those Around You)
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Striving for excellence and higher levels of satisfaction should be our mantra and motto, and keeping ourselves challenged to do better make life even more fulfilling and satisfying. It is not uncommon that we become excellent in one or two aspects and find ourselves wanting in other aspects of life.
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Lucas D. Shallua
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You shape yourself, you make yourself. There is no one to save you other than yourself. It’s not Christ, Mohammed or Moses who’s responsible for your life, it’s you. In the end, souls judge themselves.
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Michael Faust (The Right-Brain God)
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Striving for perfection is not a realistic outcome. Striving for excellence will allow you to achieve a series of victories, but a level up attitude is required.
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Germany Kent
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Reflect on the impact you make each day. Ask yourself, if someone replaced you today, what would they bring? Strive for excellence, build your skills, and own your success.
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Felecia Etienne (Overcoming Mediocrity: Limitless Women)
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The following fundamental principles are core to this standard: Strive to achieve excellence in strategic execution; Enhance transparency, responsibility, accountability, sustainability, and fairness; Balance portfolio value against overall risks; Ensure that investments in portfolio components are aligned with the organization's strategy; Obtain and maintain the sponsorship and engagement of senior management and key stakeholders; Exercise active and decisive leadership for the optimization of resource utilization; Foster a culture that embraces change and risk; and Navigate complexity to enable successful outcomes.
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Project Management Institute (The Standard for Portfolio Management)
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What drove me forward, what made me fight. I’ve always wanted to strive for excellence, to lead a fulfilled life, to leave a mark. A life is so fleeting… I would like mine to be a collection of exceptional moments.
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Patrick Mouratoglou (The Coach)
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Strive for excellence, follow your conscience and heart, and welcome feedback with open arms. Relentlessly pursue your craft.
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Millicent Eidson (Anthracis: A Microbial Mystery (MayaVerse #1))
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Quietly working on what you care about and what you are great at, minding your business while striving for excellence will get you far in life.
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Geoffrey Ocaya
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Engaged communication is a pursuit of excellence. Communicating attentively and engagingly is striving to be the best you can be.
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Darlene Corbett
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Failure is not an option striving for excellence through discipline, dedication and hard work
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Drexell Noble
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Strive to be a woman of excellence.
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Germany Kent
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The goal is to get very clear about where, as a team, we’re the most likely to get swallowed by perfectionism, how it shows up, and how we distinguish perfectionism from healthy striving for excellence
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Brené Brown (Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.)
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As you lend a helping hand, strive for excellence and do not overlook yourself in the process.
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Gift Gugu Mona (365 Inspiring Life Lessons to Empower Your Mind)
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While here on earth, keep striving for excellence, and let it be a journey that has no end.
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Gift Gugu Mona (365 Inspiring Life Lessons to Empower Your Mind)
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Push yourself beyond the existing limits. Strive for excellence and keep winning.
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Gift Gugu Mona (365 Inspiring Life Lessons to Empower Your Mind)
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Whatever investment you may have lost, remind yourself that this is not the end. Begin a new chapter of greatness. Take the necessary steps, do all you can and strive for excellence.
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Gift Gugu Mona (365 Inspiring Life Lessons to Empower Your Mind)
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When you constantly strive to do better, excellence will become the outcome.
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Gift Gugu Mona (365 Inspiring Life Lessons to Empower Your Mind)
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Yet the men labored willingly, for they had their wives and little ones about them. The forest rung with their psalms; and “the poorest people of God in the whole world,” unable “to excel in number, strength, or riches, resolved to strive to excel in grace and in holiness.” That New England village will one day engage the attention of the world.
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George Bancroft (History of the United States of America (Complete Edition): The Author’s Last Edition)
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...remember that success is a process, not a destination, let alone a summit. You must always strive for excellence, but never seek perfection.
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Denis Waitley
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He who strives for excellence strives for greatness.
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Matshona Dhliwayo
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Striving for perfection is neurotic; striving for excellence is progress. Excellence is continuous improvement. There is nothing that cannot be done better or improved the next time.
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Shiv Khera (You Can Win: A Step-by-Step Tool for Top Achievers)
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In all things... .strive for perfection - settle for excellence
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Jeff Dixon - Storming the Kingdom
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To have a spirit of excellence gives you the courage to accept large and small tasks and also strive to learn from our mistakes.
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Euginia Herlihy
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Aspire for excellence.
Hope for fortune.
Yearn for wisdom.
Strive for goodness.
Contend for love.
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Matshona Dhliwayo
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If making mistakes is the inevitable cost of striving, correcting mistakes—and learning how to avoid repeating them—is the best measure of a learning organization that will continue to get better and better.
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Charles D. Ellis (Capital: The Story of Long-Term Investment Excellence)
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We live in an imperfect world, and it is meaningless to strive for perfection. It is far better to strive for excellence. Strategy
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Kishore Biyani (It Happened in India)
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Non-goblins are strongly urged to avoid Goblintown at all costs. There are parts we recommend goblins do not even venture into unless part of a highly trained and well armed cram. If one still feels the urge to visit Goblintown, we recommend seeking counseling to eliminate the suicidal tendencies. Should this fail or not be desirable, we suggest using one of the many fine Euthanasia Houses our world has to offer. (See Euthanasia Houses, Suicide Assistants.) Not only will they strive to make the experience pleasant, but they will beautify your corpse and deliver it intact to your next of kin or designated recipient, along with a valid proof of death, allowing your affairs to be put in order. Goblintown has no such guarantees, and the odds of a corpse leaving intact are minimal. However, there is an excellent chance of your head being made into a warning decoration. (See illustrations.)” -A Visitor’s Guide to Traven, 144th Edition
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Patrick Thomas (MURPHY'S LORE: REDEMPTION ROAD)
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We need to strive for excellence and care about our church property, programming and publicity because God deserves our best. We, as the local church, are His local franchise within a community. We represent Him. The Bible says that all Christians are to act as ambassadors, as liaisons between God and others. When we do things that reflect a shabby mind-set, we are certainly not representing Him well, because God does things with excellence. Look at creation. After everything was created, He looked at it and said, “It is good.
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Stan Toler (The Five Star Church)
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Part of their approach involved making structure change to group competitive work more tightly together and separate it from noncompetitive work. The mind-set required by the two workforces is different—one to strive toward differentiation and excellence, one to aim for extraordinary efficiency. Non-competitive work is not necessarily less important—many non-strategic tasks, such as payroll, sales administration, and network operations, are absolutely crucial for running the business. But non-competitive work tends to be more transactional in nature. It often feels more urgent as well. And herein lies the problem. If the same product expert who answers demanding administrative questions and labors to fill out complicated compliance paperwork is also responsible for helping to craft unique, integrated solutions for clients, the whole client experience—the competitive work—could easily fall apart. Prying apart these two different types of activities so different teams can perform them ensures that vital competitive work is not engulfed by less competitive tasks.
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Reed Deshler (Mastering the Cube: Overcoming Stumbling Blocks and Building an Organization that Works)
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Stop striving for perfection, aim for excellence
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Faigy Liebermann (Organise Your Home Like A Pro: Declutter Your Life)
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Brand storytelling is about standing for something and striving for excellence in everything your business does. It’s about framing your scarcity and dictating your value. It’s about thinking beyond the functionality of products and services and creating a sense of loyalty and meaningful bonds with your customers.
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Bernadette Jiwa (The Fortune Cookie Principle: The 20 Keys to a Great Brand Story and Why Your Business Needs One)
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Don’t waste your time striving for perfection; instead, strive for excellence—doing your best. —Sir Laurence Olivier
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Amy E. Dean (Night Light: A Book of Nighttime Meditations (Hazelden Meditations))
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At Vogue Homes, we strive to bring our customers the best house they're dreaming. Excellence and passion are the heart of our team, not just in building but at the most favourable cost for you. We consider customer satisfaction very important and aim to please our customers.
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VogueHomes