#perfection

We two make banquets of the plainest fare In every cup we find the thrill of pleasure... For us life always moves with lilting measure We two, we two, we make our world, our pleasure ↗

— Ella Wheeler Wilcox

#harmony #love #perfection #pleasure #simplicity

Because there is a word for perfection, people will always imagine that they know it. ↗

— Idries Shah

#imagination #perfection #real-knowledge #imagination

If people reach perfection they vanish, you know. ↗

— T.H. White

#inspirational #people #perfection #inspirational

We like to stress the commonness of heroes. Essences seem undemocratic. We feel oppressed by the call to greatness. We regard an interest in glory or perfection as a sign of mental unhealthiness, and have decided that high achievers, who are called overachievers, owe their surplus ambition to a defect in mothering (either too little or too much). We want to admire but think we have a right not to be intimidated. We dislike feeling inferior to an ideal. So away with ideals, with essences. The only ideals allowed are healthy ones -- those everyone may aspire to, or comfortably imagine oneself possessing. ↗

— Susan Sontag

#ambition #democracy #egalitarianism #equality #essence

If it looks a bit rough, a little worn, with little splotches - those have the swetest flavor. The ones that are perfect on the outside tend to be a bit more bland. That is true about many things in life. ↗

— Jeff Wheeler

#life

To appreciate life's small moments, it helps to have a sense the whole can never be made perfect. ↗

— Alain de Botton

#appreciation #life #perfection #life

At its root, perfectionism isn’t really about a deep love of being meticulous. It’s about fear. Fear of making a mistake. Fear of disappointing others. Fear of failure. Fear of success. ↗

— Michael Law

#love

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

— Saint Augustine

#his #imperfections #man #out #own

There are those wonderful moments of clarity in life when one is reminded how irreparably flawed we humans are. Once, when I was nineteen, on the subway in Boston I lost my balance slightly and bumped into an elderly woman. I quickly apologized and she replied, "Well, hold on to something, stupid." There it is. That's it. That's it in a nutshell. I don't want to sound negative, but I think every fetus should be shown a film of that incident, maybe projected up on the uterine wall, and then asked if it wants to come out. I am a strong believer in a woman's right to choose, but I also think that in the last trimester, the kid should be given every opportunity to back out. ↗

— Paula Poundstone

#birth #choice #flaw #humanity #imperfection

Only themselves understand themselves and the like of themselves, As souls only understand souls. ↗

— Walt Whitman

#perfectionism #self #self-awareness #souls #life