Perfectionism is the enemy of creation, as extreme self-solicitude is the enemy of well-being.

—John Updike

Striving to be better, oft we mar what’s well.

—Shakespeare

The way to succeed is to double your error rate.

—Thomas J. Watson

The closest to perfection a person ever comes is when he fills out a job application form.

—Evan Esar

A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

—Antoine de Saint-Exupery

I find in all the artists that I admire most a disturbing element, a distortion, giving evidence of a struggle... In great art, this conflict is hidden, it is unresolved. All that is bursting with energy is disturbing — not perfect.

—Henry Moore

In order to go on living one must try to escape the death involved in perfectionism.

—Hannah Arendt

It is reasonable to have perfection in our eye that we may always advance toward it, though we know it can never be reached.

—Samuel Johnson

The only nice thing about being imperfect is the joy it brings to others.

—Doug Larson

Perfection, fortunately, is not the only alternative to mediocrity. A more sensible alternative is excellence. Striving for excellence is stimulating and rewarding; striving for perfection — in practically anything — is both neurotic and futile.

—Edwin Bliss