Top 200 Excellence Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.”

— Henry Ford

Also featured in: Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes, Integrity Quotes, Hard Work Quotes, Interesting Quotes

2. “To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.”

— Steve Prefontaine

Also featured in: Inspirational Quotes, Goal Quotes, Effort Quotes, Motivational Workout Quotes

3. “Stop being average. You’re not even good. You were born to be great.”

— Eric Thomas

Also featured in: Goal Quotes, Hard Work Quotes, Confidence Quotes, Coaching Quotes

4. “You get what you work for, not what you wish for.”

— Howard A. Tullman

Also featured in: Startup Quotes, Persistence Quotes, Growth Quotes, Quotes About Trying

5. “We don’t settle for anything less than excellence.”

— Steve Jobs

Also featured in: Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes, Work Ethic Quotes, Effort Quotes

6. “Quality in a service or product is not what you put into it. It is what the client or customer gets out of it.”

— Peter F. Drucker

Also featured in: Business Quotes, Service Quotes, Quality Quotes, Quotes About Work

7. “Don’t settle for mediocrity; never let good enough be good enough.”

— Joel Osteen

Also featured in: Empowering Quotes, Personality Quotes, Dreaming Big Quotes, Performance Quotes

8. “The only one you should compare yourself to is you. Your mission is to become better today than you were yesterday.”

— John C. Maxwell

Also featured in: Transformation Quotes, Performance Quotes, Empowerment Quotes

9. “If you want to be the best, you have to do things that other people aren’t willing to do.”

— Michael Phelps

Also featured in: Hard Work Quotes, Performance Quotes, Greatness Quotes, Fitness Quotes

10. “The quality of a man's life is in direct proportion to his commitment to excellence, regardless of his chosen field of endeavor.”

— Vince Lombardi

Also featured in: Commitment Quotes, Greatness Quotes, Quotes About Work

11. “If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.”

— Colin Powell

Also featured in: Mindset Quotes, Career Development Quotes, Greatness Quotes, Intelligent Quotes

12. “Good is the enemy of great.”

— James C. Collins

13. “Aspire greatly; anything less than a commitment to excellence becomes an acceptance of mediocrity.”

— Brian Tracy

Also featured in: Dedication Quotes, Career Development Quotes, Commitment Quotes

14. “Every single day must be excellent. You’ve got to give it all you’ve got!”

— Eric Thomas

Also featured in: Hard Work Quotes, Work Ethic Quotes, Fitness Quotes

15. “Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better.”

— Pat Riley

Also featured in: Coaching Quotes, Goal Setting Quotes, Professional Growth Quotes, Practice Quotes

16. “Excellence demands effort and planned, deliberate practice of increasing difficulty.”

— K. Anders Ericsson

Also featured in: Preparation Quotes, Practice Quotes, Mastery Quotes, Quotes About Skills

17. “Gentlemen, we will chase perfection, and we will chase it relentlessly, knowing all the while we can never attain it. But along the way, we shall catch excellence.”

— Vince Lombardi

Also featured in: Coaching Quotes, Competition Quotes, Football Quotes

18. “It takes time to create excellence. If it could be done quickly, more people would do it.”

— John Wooden

Also featured in: Coaching Quotes, Dedication Quotes, Mastery Quotes

19. “Strive for perfection in everything. Take the best that exists and make it better. If it doesn’t exist, create it. Accept nothing nearly right or good enough.”

— Henry Royce

Also featured in: Dedication Quotes, Mastery Quotes, Engineering Quotes

20. “Perform at your best when your best is required. Your best is required each day.”

— John Wooden

Also featured in: Coaching Quotes, Expectations Quotes, Sports Quotes

21. “Winning takes precedence over all. There’s no gray area. No almosts.”

— Kobe Bryant

Also featured in: Athlete Quotes, Winning Quotes, Victory Quotes, Competition Quotes

22. “Success doesn’t come from pie-in-the-sky thinking. It’s the result of consciously doing something each day that will add to your overall excellence.”

— Nick Saban

Also featured in: Coaching Quotes, Consistency Quotes

23. “Success is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.”

— Jim Rohn

Also featured in: Success Quotes, Quality Quotes, Wise Quotes

24. “The time that leads to mastery is dependent on the intensity of our focus.”

— Robert Greene

Also featured in: Focus Quotes, Discipline Quotes, Interesting Quotes, Mastery Quotes

25. “Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work.”

— Chuck Close

Also featured in: Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes, Inspirational Quotes, Hard Work Quotes, Work Ethic Quotes

26. “You were not born a winner, and you were not born a loser. You are what you make yourself be.”

— Lou Holtz

Also featured in: Confidence Quotes, Self-Esteem Quotes, Inspirational Life Quotes, Effort Quotes

27. “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.”

— Vince Lombardi

Also featured in: Inspirational Quotes, Business Quotes, Action Quotes, Coaching Quotes

28. “It takes less time to do a thing right than to explain why you did it wrong.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Also featured in: Integrity Quotes, Quotes About Work, Mistake Quotes

29. “The price of excellence is discipline. The cost of mediocrity is disappointment.”

— William Arthur Ward

Also featured in: Hard Work Quotes, Discipline Quotes, Quality Quotes, Basketball Quotes

30. “Be undeniably good. No marketing effort or social media buzzword can be a substitute for that.”

— Anthony Volodkin

Also featured in: Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes, Business Quotes, Quotes About Work, Reputation Quotes

31. “You want to be extra rigorous about making the best possible thing you can. Find everything that’s wrong with it and fix it. Seek negative feedback, particularly from friends.”

— Elon Musk

Also featured in: Work Ethic Quotes, Achievement Quotes, Productivity Quotes

32. “There is no way around the hard work. Embrace it.”

— Roger Federer

Also featured in: Persistence Quotes, Hard Work Quotes, Athlete Quotes, Work Ethic Quotes

33. “Excellence/Perfection is not a destination; it is a continuous journey that never ends.”

— Brian Tracy

Also featured in: Growth Quotes, Achievement Quotes

34. “I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.”

— Oscar Wilde

Also featured in: Witty Quotes

35. “People of excellence go the extra mile to do what’s right.”

— Joel Osteen

Also featured in: Integrity Quotes, Effort Quotes, Character Quotes

36. “You always have to focus in life on what you want to achieve.”

— Michael Jordan

Also featured in: Focus Quotes, Winning Quotes, Motivational Workout Quotes

37. “Success is peace of mind in knowing you did your best.”

— John Wooden

Also featured in: Athlete Quotes, Coaching Quotes, Effort Quotes

38. “The best preparation for good work tomorrow is to do good work today.”

— Elbert Hubbard

Also featured in: Business Quotes, Action Quotes, Quotes About Work

39. “Focusing on one thing and doing it really, really well can get you very far.”

— Kevin Systrom

Also featured in: Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes, Growth Quotes, Quotes About Work, Productivity Quotes

40. “Simplicity is the key to brilliance.”

— Bruce Lee

Also featured in: Motivational Workout Quotes, Intelligent Quotes, Creative Quotes

41. “My tastes are simple: I am easily satisfied with the best.”

— Winston Churchill

42. “Where focus goes, energy flows. And if you don’t take the time to focus on what matters, then you’re living a life of someone else’s design.”

— Tony Robbins

Also featured in: Focus Quotes, Inspirational Life Quotes, Mindset Quotes

43. “Do it. Do it right. Do it right now.”

— Spencer W. Kimball

Also featured in: Persistence Quotes, Commitment Quotes, Productivity Quotes, Procrastination Quotes

44. “It's never crowded along the extra mile.”

— Wayne W. Dyer

Also featured in: Persistence Quotes, Positive Thinking Quotes, Quotes About Work

45. “Excellence is not a skill, excellence is an attitude.”

— Conor McGregor

Also featured in: Attitude Quotes, Sports Quotes, Quotes About Skills

46. “Work hard at work worth doing.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

Also featured in: Hard Work Quotes, Performance Quotes, Intelligent Quotes

47. “Set your goals high, and don’t stop till you get there.”

— Bo Jackson

Also featured in: Persistence Quotes, Commitment Quotes, Motivational Workout Quotes, Sports Quotes

48. “Pressure is a privilege – it only comes to those who earn it.”

— Billie Jean King

Also featured in: Athlete Quotes, Encouragement Quotes, Motivational Workout Quotes, Competition Quotes

49. “People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents.”

— Andrew Carnegie

Also featured in: Perseverance Quotes, Greatness Quotes, Ambition Quotes, Productivity Quotes

50. “Good things take time, as they should. We shouldn’t expect good things to happen overnight. Actually, getting something too easily or too soon can cheapen the outcome.”

— John Wooden

Also featured in: Perseverance Quotes, Time Quotes, Patience Quotes