“As it is far better to excel in any single art, than to arrive only at a mediocrity in several; so on the other hand, a moderate skill in several is to be preferred, where one cannot attain to excellency in any.”
Letter 29, 1.
Letters, Book IX
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Pliny the Younger50
Roman writer 61–113Related quotes
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America
Letter to Benjamin Rush (12 April 1803) https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-40-02-0178-0001 <br class="br">1800s, First Presidential Administration (1801&ndash;1805)
Thiago Silva (1984) Brazilian footballer
Mauro Tassotti, 2011 https://www.acmilan.com/en/news/show/134347 <br class="br">From former and current footballers
“Prefer to be defeated in the presence of the wise than to excel among fools.”
Dogen (1200–1253) Japanese Zen buddhist teacher
“Reward excellent failures. Punish mediocre successes.”
Tom Peters (1942) American writer on business management practices
Source: The Little Big Things: 163 Ways To Pursue Excellence (2010), p. 53.
Michel De Montaigne book Essays
Book III, Ch. 13. Of Experience
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Vince Lombardi (1913–1970) American football player, coach, and executive
Variant: The spirit, the will to win, and the will to excel, are the things that endure. These qualities are so much more important than the events that occur.
William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English writer
No. 416
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)