“Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.”

—  Colin Powell

This evokes Will Durant's famous summation of Aristotle: "Excellence then is not an act, but a habit."
2000s, The Powell Principles (2003)
Context: If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.

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Colin Powell 63
Former U.S. Secretary of State and retired four-star general 1937

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