Attributed without citation in Ken Robinson, The Element (2009), p. 260. Widely attributed to Michelangelo since the late 1990s, this adage has not been found before 1980 when it appeared without attribution in E. C. McKenzie, Mac's giant book of quips & quotes.
Disputed
Variant: The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.
“Those who have achieved all their aims probably set them too low.”
Die 7 Geheimnisse der Dirigenten-Legende in Bild, 4. April 2008
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Herbert von Karajan 3
Austrian conductor 1908–1989Related quotes
“I will commit not the terrible crime of aiming too low.”
Source: The Greatest Salesman in the World (1968), Ch. 15 : The Scroll Marked VIII, p. 91.
Context: I will commit not the terrible crime of aiming too low. I will do the work that a failure will not do. I will always let my reach exceed my grasp.
“3769. One may as much miss the Mark, by aiming too high, as too low.”
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)
Quoted, without citation, in O'Boyle's Quotes, Jokes & Anecdotes (2012), p. 25
Attributed
“You must have goals and set targets to achieve them.”
"Simply the Greatest" (2020)
Source: Chemistry as an Interesting Subject for the Philosophy of Science, 2001, p. 192
Source: 1940s, Resolving social conflicts; selected papers on group dynamics, 1948, p. 133 as cited in: Roger Dale, Madeleine MacDonald, Geoff Esland (1976) Schooling & Capitalism: A Sociological Reader. p. 111.