#mediocrity

I hope this series is good work, but it is in the half-hour medium, which is limited to a kind of mediocrity that sponsors are just dying to have right now, and the public, for some reason, is unconsciously demanding. ↗

— Jackie Cooper

#dying #good #good work #half-hour #hope

Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them. ↗

— Joseph Heller

#born #mediocre #mediocrity #men #some

Well, teachers have been profoundly demoralized in recent years and are often treated with contempt by politicians. There's a great deal of reckless rhetoric in Washington about the mediocrity of the teaching profession - and I don't find that to be true at all. ↗

— Jonathan Kozol

#be true #been #contempt #deal #demoralized

Mechanization best serves mediocrity. ↗

— Frank Lloyd Wright

#mediocrity #serves

We gain nothing by being with such as ourselves. We encourage one another in mediocrity. I am always longing to be with men more excellent than myself. ↗

— Charles Lamb

#am #another #being #encourage #excellent

Let America first praise mediocrity even, in her children, before she praises... the best excellence in the children of any other land. ↗

— Herman Melville

#any #before #best #children #even

Good behavior is the last refuge of mediocrity. ↗

— Henry S. Haskins

#good #good behavior #last #mediocrity #refuge

It's because I haven't courage,' said Samuel. 'I could never quite take the responsibility. When the Lord God did not call my name, I might have called his name - but I did not. There you have the difference between greatness and mediocrity. It's not an uncommon disease. But it's nice for a mediocre man to know that greatness must be the loneliest state in the world.' 'I'd think there are degrees of greatness,' Adam said. 'I don't think so,' said Samuel. 'That would be like saying there is a little bigness. No. I believe when you come to that responsibility the hugeness and you are alone to make your choice. On one side you have warmth and companionship and sweet understanding, and on the other - cold, lonely greatness. There you make your choice. I'm glad I chose mediocrity, but how am I to say what reward might have come with the other? None of my children will be great either, except perhaps Tom. He's suffering over the choosing right now. It's a painful thing to watch. And somewhere in me I want him to say yes. Isn't that strange? A father to want his son condemned to greatness! What selfishness that must be. ↗

— John Steinbeck

#father #greatness #john-steinbeck #mediocrity #son

Mediocrity is Death. ↗

— Suleman Abdullah

#brands #creative-profession #ideas #inspirational #life-lessons

However, Nick acted as much as possible under the circumstances, and that was rectifying — it brought with it enjoyment and a working faith. He had not gone counter to the axiom that in a case of doubt one was to hold off; for that applied to choice, and he had not at present the slightest pretension to choosing. He knew he was lifted along, that what he was doing was not first-rate, that nothing was settled by it and that if there was essentially a problem in his life it would only grow tougher with keeping. But if doing one's sum to-morrow instead of to-day does not make the sum easier it at least makes to-day so. ↗

— Henry James

#muddling-through #procrastination #faith