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

Last update Oct. 29, 2025. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Perfection is not attainable. But if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence." by Vince Lombardi?

Vince Lombardi33

American football player, coach, and executive 1913–1970

Related quotes

“Gentlemen, we are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch it, because nothing is perfect. But we are going to relentlessly chase it, because in the process we will catch excellence. I am not remotely interested in just being good.”

Vince Lombardi (1913–1970) American football player, coach, and executive

First team meeting as Packers coach (1959), reported in Chuck Carlson, Game of My Life: 25 Stories of Packers Football (2004), p. 149; Richard Scott, Jay Barker, Legends of Alabama Football (2004), p. 78.

“Strive for excellence, not perfection, because we don't live in a perfect world.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

“His Biographer remarked: Of course, ‘Sir, you believe in excellence.' JRD Tata) retorted sharply, 'Not excellence. Perfection. You aim for perfection, you will attain excellence. If you aim for excellence, you will go lower.”

J. R. D. Tata (1904–1993) Indian businessman

His Biographers remark quoted in “Believing in Perfection” in New India Digest

“I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God's business.”

Michael J. Fox (1961) Canadian-American actor

“You can't make a perfect painting. We can see perfection in our minds. But we can't make a perfect painting.”

Agnes Martin (1912–2004) American artist

interview with Joan Simon, 1995 in Perfection is in the Mind, p. 86; as quoted in A House Divided: American Art Since 1955, Anne M. G. Wagner, Univ. of California Press, 2012, p. 263
1980 - 2000

“The only thing that separates any one of us from excellence is fear and the opposite of fear is faith. I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence I can reach for, perfection is God’s business.”

Michael J. Fox (1961) Canadian-American actor