Perfectionist Quotes

I'm a perfectionist, so doing a high quality, high caliber television show with great actors makes me feel like there's this whole world of television that I've never experienced. ~ Vinessa Shaw

I'm never pleased with anything, I'm a perfectionist, it's part of who I am. ~ Michael Jackson

I'm a perfectionist and if I start making changes, I'll never stop. ~ Al Franken

Workaholics don't actually accomplish more than nonworkaholics. They may claim to be perfectionists, but that just mean they're wasting time fixating on inconsequential details instead of moving on to the next task. ~ David Heinemeier Hansson

If you are a real perfectionist, you can't finish any job! We, the mortals, we don't have enough time to be perfectionist! Perfectionism is the art of immortals! ~ Mehmet Murat Ildan

I'm a different person off the court than I am on the court, where I'm very competitive, a perfectionist, and I can be hard on myself sometimes. Off the court, nothing really bothers me. I'm easy-going. ~ Mary Pierce

You should just go, go to work, work hard, be a perfectionist, be a workhorse. If you work 10 years straight, you'll be comfortable and set for life. That is a fact. ~ Greg Gutfeld

I'm a perfectionist. I won't do a thing without trying to do it well. ~ Pat Nixon

It is easy to be a moral perfectionist when one is politically unaccountable. ~ Robert D. Kaplan

I was something that is always hated in Hollywood - a perfectionist; nobody likes a perfectionist, you know. ~ Fritz Lang

I'm a perfectionist. I can't help it, I get really upset with myself if I fail in the least. ~ Justin Timberlake

I have a perfectionist mentality; I want things to be right. But I've had a little duel over the years with that mentality. Because it can inhibit you. ~ Jon Voight

People who self-handicap purposely shoot themselves in the foot in order to protect themselves from having to confront their possible shortcomings. Many self-handicapping behaviors are those small, subtle bad habits like being late, gossiping, micromanaging, behaving passive-aggressively, or being a perfectionist. We may not recognize these self-defeating--and self-handicapping--traits for what they are. Or we may even wrongly perceive them as strengths. But in truth, they often get in the way of us blooming. ~ Rich Karlgaard

Don't aim for perfection. Aim for 'better than yesterday'. ~ Izey Victoria Odiase

I'm a bit of a perfectionist, it turns out. Who knew? ~ Blake Nelson

I've never been satisfied with myself, ever. But I feel good about myself, because I'm truthful. I don't corrupt myself. I'm also a perfectionist. I'm very impatient. I've got energy and drive and I can't stand inefficiency in people. And I can't stand dumb people. Why surround yourself with people who are going to tie you down? I don't suffer fools. ~ Jack LaLanne

Evolution is, as an engineer, an opportunist, not a perfectionist. ~ Stanislaw Lem

Anyone with a show on T.V. will tell you it's backbreaking work. And if you have a big personality, which I have, and you're a perfectionist, there's going to be head-butting. ~ Roseanne Barr

I would consider myself a perfectionist, yeah. I don't think that is always that helpful, either. Sometimes it's good to be a little more open-minded; you can overthink things when things are actually fine, and it's that moment that you lose it. Looking back, sometimes I've made mistakes from being a perfectionist. ~ Tom Odell

I'm a perfectionist. ~ Kristi Yamaguchi

I am definitely a perfectionist, and I do like things a certain way. But as I have got older, I would say that I am a little bit less of a control freak. ~ Rachel Zoe

It is good to be imperfect so that we retain our joy to work hard to rise to perfection! ~ Mehmet Murat Ildan

Whatever I have to do here, I'm ready for it. Work hard, do my homework, get an A, get back home to Bob and the kids, and back to work. Back to normal. I'm determined to recover 100 percent. One hundred percent has always been my goal in everything, unless extra credit is involved, and then I shoot higher. Thank God I'm a competitive, type A perfectionist. I'm convinced I'm going to be the best traumatic brain injury patient Baldwin has ever seen. But they won't be seeing me for very long because I also plan to recover faster than anyone here would predict. I wonder what the record is. ~ Lisa Genova

I am a perfectionist. ~ Katherine Jenkins

Mum is a perfectionist and Dad is a pedant and that was partly why their marriage didn't work so well, Elsa figures. Because a perfectionist and a pedant are two very different things. ~ Fredrik Backman

When it comes to my art work I would say that I am a perfectionist, although my sketchbook, and my process, is a mess. ~ Noma Bar

Sometimes, I'm an ogre. I can be short. I'll walk into the office some days and I've gotten up on the wrong side of the bed, and everybody knows it. I'm a perfectionist. I like to be organized, and I like to get everything done today. ~ Jack Nicklaus

I am not a perfectionist, but I like to feel that things are done well. More important than that, I feel an endless need to learn, to improve, to evolve, not only to please the coach and the fans, but also to feel satisfied with myself. It is my conviction that here are no limits to learning, and that it can never stop, no matter what our age. ~ Cristiano Ronaldo

Perfectionists demand perfection from themselves first and foremost. ~ Joyce Meyer

Olive Ann describes Sanna as 'a perfectionist and a worrier.' She is obsessed with the idea of finding happiness, and for her, as Olive ann wrote in her notes for the novel, 'happiness means being first with somebody, having perfect, loving children ... The theme of Sanna is disillusionment,' Olive Ann wrote. 'Her life is the pursuit of happiness and perfection, but she finds happiness and perfection impossible to obtain-her idea of happiness is constant joy, no changes. ~ Olive Ann Burns

I also learned that you didn't come onto this earth as a perfectionist or control freak. You weren't born a person of cringe and contraction. You were born as energy, as life, made of the same stuff as stars, blossoms, breezes. You learned contraction to survive, but that was then. You have paid through the nose-paid but good. It is now your turn to reap. ~ Anne Lamott

A lot of actors are perfectionists, besides merely being egotists. ~ Eric Mabius

I am by nature a perfectionist, and I seem to have trouble allowing anything to go through in a half-perfect condition. So if I made any mistake it was in working too hard and in doing too much of it with my own hands. ~ Howard Hughes

I do and re-do things that I used to do in a flash, because I want to be more perfectionist about these things. Maybe it sounds pompous and pretentious, but that's the way I feel. ~ Manolo Blahnik

I always feel like I'm rehearsing. I'm a workaholic. But youve got to let go and trust and enjoy! I'm a real perfectionist. Its probably my biggest disadvantage. But as long as I can go out there, trust in the work and just have fun, thats what matters. ~ Nicole Scherzinger

Jim Cameron is a feisty man and a perfectionist, but also absolutely brilliant. ~ Kate Winslet

I live to collect information, and I am also a perfectionist. ~ Meghan O'Rourke

THE DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY RULES 1. Control or Chaos. One must be in control of all interactions, feelings and personal behavior at all times - control is the major defense strategy for shame. In the less-than-human shameless marriage, both parents may be cocaine addicts or addicted in other ways. They may be dishonest criminals. The children experience chaos, as well as secrecy rules that guard their family's behavior. 2. Perfectionism or Anomie. Always be right in everything you do. The perfectionist rule always involves an imposed measurement. The fear and avoidance of the negative is the organizing principle of life. The members live according to an externalized image. No one ever measures up. In the less-than-human family, there are no rules - the children have no structure to guide them. ~ John Bradshaw

Just because you're perfectionist doesn't mean you're perfect. ~ Jack Nicholson

Ah suppose man, ah'm too much ay a perfectionist, ken? It's likesay, if things go a bit dodgy, ah jist cannae be bothered, y'know. ~ Irvine Welsh

I'm somewhat of a perfectionist, I think, and I strive for perfection. ~ Sam Claflin

There's scientific evidence for the satisfizer over the maximizer. Those who just get it done will generally be happier with the outcome and will be able to be more effective than those who try to maximize every decision and they hold off on it until they have the maximal amount of information. They are less happy with the outcome, whatever decision they do end up making, and that decision is only marginally optimal in most cases, and sometimes is even worse. So get into the habit of being decisive. It is going to make you more effective and happier. ~ David Tian Ph.D

For me, Fitzgerald was one of the great American writers of the last century; a wordsmith, a storyteller, a perfectionist. ~ Robert Littell

Death is a beautiful naked man who looks like Apollo, and he is not satisfied with those who wither away in old age. Death is a perfectionist, he likes the young and beautiful, he wants to stroke our hair and caress the sinew that binds our muscle to the bone. He does all he can to meet us, our faces gladden his heart, and he stands in our path to challenge us because he likes a clean fair fight, and after the fight he likes to befriend us, clap us on the shoulder, and make us laugh at all the pettiness and folly of the living. At the conclusion of a battle he wanders amongst the dead, raising them up, placing laurels upon the brows of those most comely, and he gathers them together as his own children and takes them away to drink wine that tastes of honey and gives them the sense of proportion that they never had in life ~ Louis De Bernieres

I work very hard at relationships. I've done the thing of being home. I worked all day and came home and did all the stuff at home that a woman is supposed to do, the cooking and the entertaining. I'm a perfectionist, and, besides, I loved all those things. ~ Jacqueline Bisset

I'm a perfectionist. I need to be needed. I need to do things for a man. But I don't need to do them as much, these days. ~ Jacqueline Bisset

And however perfectionist you tried to be, in the end words were alive, in constant flux. No dictionary could ever achieve true completion. ~ Shion Miura

If you have things and if you are a perfectionist, which I am, you have to really tend to them, and it takes energy away from other things. ~ Nicolas Berggruen

Wholeness lies beyond perfection. Perfection is only an idea. For most experts and many of the rest of us it has become a life goal...A perfectionist sees life as if it were one of those little pictures that used to appear in the newspapers over the caption "What's wrong with this picture?" If you looked at the picture carefully you would see that the table only had three legs or the house had no door. I remember the "Aha!" that these pictures evoked in me as a child. I wonder now why anyone would want to take such satisfaction in seeing what is missing, what is wrong, what is "broken." The pursuit of perfection has become a major addiction of our time. Fortunately, perfectionism is learned...which is why it's possible to recover. ~ Rachel Naomi Remen

When you write, produce, engineer and mix everything yourself, it tends to take a long time to do anything. And when you're a perfectionist little monster, it makes it even harder. But it's a blast and I wouldn't trade the opportunity for all the ice cream sandwiches in the universe. ~ Adam Young

Let the perfectionist play postal. ~ Yasser Seirawan

I'm not a perfectionist by a long shot, but self-doubt is a large part of my creative process. ~ Keith Fullerton Whitman

Moms are not perfect - we are being perfected. ~ Sue Detweiler

My life, my soul is anything but finished hence it is not perfect. Only masterpieces are finished and could be considered perfect. So unless you are a "David" or a "Requiem" or perhaps a "Mona Lisa" you are not perfect. We'll be prone to errors and we will make mistakes. But at least these allow us to become something closer to perfection. ~ Daniel Gyorki

Procrastination is a sign of a perfectionist. ~ Patrick J. Kennedy

Tom Landry is a perfectionist. If he was married to Raquel Welch, he'd expect her to cook. ~ Don Meredith

And I deal with all that by being like a perfectionist. But that's okay. ~ Jennifer Lopez

I'm a perfectionist, so my bossiness definitely comes out. ~ Emma Watson

I'm a perfectionist and, when it comes to people I want to work with, I have changed my mind, like, millions of times. ~ Cassie Ventura

Well, being a perfectionist seems okay from the outside, but a perfectionist never enjoys anything, no matter how well it goes, because nothing is ever perfect. ~ Jane Smiley

I loved Chiara Mastroianni voice, her talent, her generosity. We rehearsed for two months ... She's a workaholic and perfectionist, like Vincent [ Paronnaud] and myself. ~ Marjane Satrapi

I think every chef, not just in America, but across the world, has a double-edged sword - two jackets, one that's driven, a self-confessed perfectionist, thoroughbred, hate incompetence and switch off the stove, take off the jacket and become a family man. ~ Gordon Ramsay

Continuous Improvement is the way which always heads towards the Perfection. ~ Yogesh Chauhan

To experience joy on a daily basis, learn what it means to live in the moment. Notice I said in, not for. To live for the moment is irresponsible and leads to decisions you may regret. You may already have a testimony of what it meant for you to live for the moment. Living in the moment helps us recognize that God can be found in this moment, whether it contains joy or sorrow. As a perfectionist, I'm always waiting for a perfect moment before I enjoy it. But nothing is ever perfect! That's why the Bible encourages us to "make the most of every opportunity" for doing good (Eph. 5:16 ~ Kay Warren

It's one thing to be a perfectionist when you're alone, but when you're trying to make it work in an ensemble that's a whole different deal. ~ George Saunders

I love to talk to children about making mistakes. It's important that I tell them about how I don't get it right the first time. We live in such a perfectionist society, and they see so many finished products and polished performances. ~ Patricia MacLachlan

Not to be such a perfectionist, it makes life hard. I'd like to be more relaxed about everything. ~ Heather Small

Peter Kubelka is the perfectionist of the film medium; and, as I honor that quality above all others at this time finding such a lack of it now elsewhere, I would simply like to say: Peter Kubelka is the world's greatest filmmaker - which is to say, simply: see his films! ... by all means/above all else ... etcetera. ~ Stan Brakhage

I can tell you that if there's nothing wrong with you except fat it is easy to get thin. You eat and drink the same as always, only half. If you are handed a plate of food, leave half; if you have to help yourself, take half. After a while, if you are a perfectionist, you can consume half of that again … On the question of will-power, if that is a factor, you should think of will-power as something that never exists in the present tense, only in the future and the past. At one moment you have decided to do or refrain from an action and the next moment you have already done or refrained; it is the only way to deal with will-power. ~ Muriel Spark

Don't just think about what you missed! Don't continue to dwell on your past mistakes. You shall also miss something in life, consciously or unconsciously! You shall never be able to do all things excellently in life though you must try to! The lesson from what you missed and its application for a better tomorrow is what matter! Move your thought! Move your body! ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

People often called us perfectionists, but we were not looking for perfection. We were looking for some kind of magic in the music. ~ Paul Simon

I'm a perfectionist. I'm not going to cheat the people. ~ Dick Dale

It's a bit of a headache being a perfectionist. You're never satisfied. ~ Cherie Lunghi

Attention to detail and a perfectionist instinct, far from stimulating action, are character qualities that lead to renunciation. Better to dream than to be. ~ Fernando Pessoa

I'm a perfectionist, so it's hard for me to just accept that that I can't keep working until it's perfected. But I'm learning, I'm growing as a human in that way. ~ Taissa Farmiga

He didn't disagree with me, but he seemed to feel that I have a perfection complex of some kind. Much talk from him, and quite intelligent, on the virtues of living the imperfect life, of accepting one's own and others' weaknesses. I agree with him, but only in theory. I'll champion indiscrimination till doomsday, on the grounds that it leads to health and a kind of very real, enviable happiness. Followed purely it's the way of the Tao, and undoubtedly the highest way. But for a discriminating man to achieve this, it would mean that he would have to dispossess himself of poetry, go beyond poetry. That is, he couldn't possibly learn or drive himself to like bad poetry in the abstract, let alone equate it with good poetry. He would have to drop poetry altogether. I said it would be no easy thing to do. Dr Sims said I was putting it too stringently – putting it, he said, as only a perfectionist would. ~ J.D. Salinger

I'm a pretty chaotic person, but I'm also a perfectionist. It's a very unfortunate mix. ~ Pawel Pawlikowski

I'm a perfectionist, and I always think that I can do better what I have done, even if it's good. ~ Luciano Pavarotti

I'm kind of a perfectionist, and it gets in the way with my putting sometimes. Golf is a messed-up game. When you feel you've figured it out is when you're going to struggle. ~ Camilo Villegas

Many people think of me as a perfectionist, someone who polishes and shines each song and performance. I've always been bothered by that assumption. ~ Phil Collins

Find the perfection in every moment instead of trying to make every moment perfect. ~ Donnalynn Civello

At age 12, I was on 'Guiding Light,' and I wanted to be accepted by these adults I was working with. I started with the Eat Right for Your Type diet. A friend who was a little older was doing it. I have a perfectionist personality, so I wanted to do the best job I could. I was not eating anything it said not to. ~ Brittany Snow

We don't think of ourselves as being perfectionists, really. To us it's more about desperately trying to have it sound more or less OK. ~ Donald Fagen

When Stephen talked about stalking chamois his whole expression changed. The features became more aquiline, the nose sharpened, the chin narrowed, and his eyes-steel blue - somehow took on the cold brilliance of a northern sky. I am being very frank about my husband. He attracted me at those times, and he repelled me too. This man, I told myself when I first met him, is a perfectionist. And he has no compassion. Gratified like all women who find themselves sought after and desired - a mutual love for Sibelius had been our common ground at our first encounter - after a few weeks in his company I shut my eyes to further judgment, because being with him gave me pleasure. It flattered my self-esteem. The perfectionist, admired by other women, now sought me. Marriage was in every sense a coup. It was only afterwards that I knew myself deceived. ("The Chamois") ~ Daphne Du Maurier

I read somewhere that writers, as they get older, become more and more perfectionist. Which may be because they think more highly of themselves and they worry about their reputations. I think there's some truth to that. ~ Tom Wolfe

I had to have the record literally taken away from me. I am such a perfectionist. ~ Zachary Cole Smith

I'm a perfectionist in recovery. I'm trying to deal with that monster inside of me that wants to do everything right. Or better than right. ~ Shakira

A perfectionist has to take his time, ~ Michael Jackson

I'm a maniacal perfectionist. ~ Martha Stewart

There is still a kind of unique loneliness to child rearing for women. We so often do it in isolation. Add to the fact that in our competitive, perfectionist culture, in which the price woman are required to pay for freedom still seems to be martyrdom, almost everyone lies about motherhood. Part of that lying is loyalty - I can't let on that my kid is the only one on the playground who can't read or play the piano - and part of it is self-protection, since we've made hyper-motherhood a measure of female success. The preferred answer to the question "How are you?" is always "Fine," and the answer to the question "How are the kids?" is supposed to be "Great!" That's true even if the accurate answers would be "terrible" and "a mess." I think it produces its own kind of desperation, especially for women, who yearn to be emotionally open. ~ Anna Quindlen

People call me a perfectionist, but I'm not. I'm a rightist. I do something until it's right, and then I move on to the next thing. ~ James Cameron

I'm such a perfectionist and I like to have everything just right, but at the same time I try to be as real and as genuine as I can be in my life and in my career. ~ Josh Turner

I think this ... "perfectionist gene" that too many young women have holds them back, and instead they should be really aiming for "good enough." You don't have to be perfect. Most men never think like that. They're just trying to figure out what's the opening and how they can seize it. They're not thinking about, Oh my gosh, I'm not perfect, my hair's not perfect today, I wore the wrong shoes. No. ~ Hillary Clinton

Once you have a short list of your top five strengths, try referring to this list when you have a problem you need to overcome. For example, if your strength is resourcefulness, then remember this strength when you need to solve a problem. To increase your psychological flexibility, try applying your strengths in new ways compared to how you'd usually apply them. For example, if you'd usually apply your resourcefulness to figuring out how to do a task yourself, try using your resourcefulness to find someone you could outsource that work to. If you'd usually apply your strength of conscientiousness to doing a task extremely thoroughly, try applying your conscientiousness to limiting the amount of time and energy you invest in the task and sticking to that limit.
Experiment: List your top five strengths as a person. Since you're free to revise your list at any points (it's yours after all), don't get too perfectionist about it. Once you have your list, identify a task you currently need to do. How could you apply one of your top five strengths to approach that task in a new way? ~ Alice Boyes

I stress out a lot. Being a perfectionist doesn't help with that! ~ Ryan Newman

Despite popular opinion, there are no important parallels between Madonna and Monroe, who was a virtuoso comedienne but who was in secure, depressive, passive-aggressive, and infuriatingly obstructionist in her career habits. Madonna is manic, perfectionist, workaholic. Monroe abused alcohol and drugs, while Madonna shuns them. Monroe had a tentative, melting, dreamy solipsism; Madonna has Judy Holliday's wisecracking smart mouth and Joan Crawford's steel will and bossy, circus master managerial competence. ~ Camille Paglia

I am pretty tenacious as a perfectionist in terms of getting something right. ~ Garry Shandling

I'm not a perfectionist but I'm definitely, or well, I like discipline. I'm obedient. I'm not a perfectionist. ~ Natalie Portman

I don't think that because you are a perfectionist that that makes you necessarily automatically unlikable. ~ Jennifer Garner

Though it may seem counter intuitive to our inner perfectionist, recognizing our mistakes as valuable lessons (not failures) helps us lay the groundwork for later success. ~ Sharon Salzberg