“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.”

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.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update July 18, 2022. History

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Michelangelo Buonarroti 27
Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet 1475–1564

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To J.W. http://www.emersoncentral.com/poems/to_jw.htm, st. 4
1840s, Poems (1847)

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