Indiscriminate pursuit of perfection infallibly leads to mediocrity.
The soul, considered with its Creator, is like one of those mathematical lines that may draw nearer to another for all eternity without a possibility of touching it; and can there be a thought so transporting as to consider ourselves in these perpetual approaches to Him, who is not only the standard of perfection, but of happiness?
Perfection is immutable. But for things imperfect, change is the way to perfect them.
There is an unfortunate disposition in a man to attend much more to the faults of his companions which offend him, than to their perfections which please him.
This is the only perfection there is, the perfection of helping others.
You don't need to stick to tough rules or overnight changes; you need not rely on hardcore discipline that makes you hate your life. You need only focus on progress, not perfection. Lean in to the process of losing weight, and it will happen easily.
Religion becomes a state of mind achievable in almost any activity of life, if this activity is raised to a suitable level of perfection.
Two possibilities: making oneself infinitely small or being so. The second is perfection, that is to say, inactivity, the first is beginning, that is to say, action.
Perfection does not exist - only God is perfect.
I think it is no exaggeration to say we are on the cusp of the further perfection of extreme evil, an evil whose possibility spreads well beyond that which weapons of mass destruction bequeathed to the nation-states, on to a surprising and terrible empowerment of extreme individuals.
Education lays hold of what is best in a person, but character lays hold of what is worse. It takes hold of a failing and by very skillful manipulation and training turns it into a perfection.
My Master used to say, when a pitcher is being filled (by immersion), it gurgles, but when full, it is noiseless.
To bear with patience wrongs done to oneself is a mark of perfection, but to bear with patience wrongs done to someone else is a mark of imperfection and even of actual sin.
That is what great athletes can do: they give us a model of striving for human perfection.
What we call our joy, God calls our perfection. Each human being has come into the world with the message of perfection. Each human being will one day realize the highest Truth. Each human being is destined to be fulfilled. It is the birthright of our soul.
He that seeks perfection upon earth leaves nothing new for the saints to find in heaven; for whilst men teach, there will be mistakes in divinity, and as long as no other govern, errors in the State.
If we had strength and faith enough to trust ourselves entirely to God; and follow Him simply wherever He should lead us, we should have no need of any great effort of mind to reach perfection.
God helps those who work, not those who are idle. No one helps an inactive person, but one who joins in the labor. The good God himself will bring. . . work to perfection.
The Anarchists never have claimed that liberty will bring perfection; they simply say that its results are vastly preferable to those that follow authority.
It is practice alone that brings the powers of the mind, as well as those of the body, to their perfection.