60 Excellence Quotes to Inspire You to Be the Best

If you want to succeed in life and be extraordinary, then read these excellence quotes we’ve compiled.

Achieving excellence does not happen overnight. It is a lifelong process that requires commitment, hard work, and consistency.

Most of all, it consists of pouring your whole heart and soul and never giving up.

Not everyone is willing to pursue excellence. In fact, many of us settle for mediocrity because we prefer the easy and comfortable route.

But, if we never try to do our best in anything, can we really say we lived a meaningful life? 

So, if you want to make a positive change for yourself, then these quotes are for you.

Learn about excellence and leave a lasting impact on the world by reading our entire collection below.

Start here.

And don’t forget to check out these simplicity quotes and positive quotes.

Best Excellence Quotes

1. “Excellence endures and sustains. It goes beyond motivation into the realms of inspiration.” – Azim Premji

2. “Excellence is the result of caring more than others think is wise, risking more than others think is safe, dreaming more than others think is practical, and expecting more than others think is possible.” – Ronnie Oldham

3. “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence.” – Vince Lombardi

4. “Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” – Aristotle

5. “Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution. It represents the wise choice of many alternatives—choice, not chance, determines your destiny.” – Aristotle

6. “Seeking excellence means choosing to forge your own sword to cut through the limitations of your life.” – James A. Murphy

7. “The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential—these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.” – Confucius

8. “Excellence is a better teacher than mediocrity. The lessons of the ordinary are everywhere. Truly profound and original insights are to be found only in studying the exemplary.” – Warren G. Bennis

9. “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.” – Colin Powell

10. “Those who attain any excellence commonly spend life in one pursuit, for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms.” – Samuel Johnson

11. “Excellence is not a destination. It’s a continuous journey that never ends.” – Anonymous

Famous Quotes About Excellence

12. “Once you have experienced excellence, you will never again be content with mediocrity.” – Thomas S. Monson

13. “Excellence is not a skill. It’s an attitude.” – Ralph Marston

14. “The noblest search is the search for excellence.” – Anonymous

15. “Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.” – Steve Jobs

16. “Every job is a self-portrait of the person who did it. Autograph your work with excellence.” – Jessica Guidobono

17. “True excellence is a product of synergy.” – Mack Wilberg

18. “Excellence in anything increases your potential in everything. Nothing with value comes without a price.” – Anonymous

19. “The pursuit of excellence with unrestrained passion can lead to the accomplishment of wonders with unsurpassed joy.” – Aberjhani

20. “People of excellence go the extra mile to do what’s right.” – Joel Osteen

Also read: Famous Quotes, Encouraging Quotes

Short Excellence Quotes That Are Packed With Wisdom

21. “Excellence is a continuous process and not an accident.” – A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

22. “Excellence is rarely found, more rarely valued.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

23. “Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better.” – Pat Riley

24. “Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.” – John W. Gardner

25. “There are no shortcuts to true excellence.” – Angela Duckworth

26. “Pursue excellence, and success will follow.” – Rancho

27. “If you don’t value excellence, you won’t achieve excellence.” – Glenn C. Stewart

28. “Excellence is perseverance in the presence of obstacles.” – Anonymous

29. “Excellence requires discomfort.” – T. D. Jakes

30. “Excellence is a direct result of an extra effort.” – Gift Gugu Mona

31. “Excellence is a process that should occupy all our days.” – Theodore Wilhelm Engstrom

32. “Happiness is the full use of one’s talents along lines of excellence.” – John F. Kennedy

Excellence Quotes to Help You Fully Understand What It Entails

33. “Many people can reach for and achieve excellence. To do this consistently is what separates masters and geniuses from everyone else.” – Paul Russo

34. “We should not judge people by their peak of excellence, but by the distance, they have traveled from the point where they started.” – Henry Ward Beecher

35. “It doesn’t cost more to strive for excellence, but if you settle for mediocrity, it’ll cost you dearly.” – Frank Sonnenberg

36. “The secret of living a life of excellence is merely a matter of thinking thoughts of excellence. Really, it’s a matter of programming our minds with the kind of information that will set us free.” – Charles R. Swindoll

37. “My meaning simply is that whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do well. That whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself to completely. That in great aims and in small, I have always been thoroughly in earnest.” – Charles Dickens

Also read: Creativity Quotes

Excellence Quotes That Will Motivate You to Give Your All

38. “Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.” – Booker T. Washington

39. “Excellence is in the details. Give attention to the details in everything you do, and excellence will come.” – Perry Sexton

40. “Excellence in any department can be attained only by the labor of a lifetime. It is not to be purchased at a lesser price.” – Samuel Johnson

41. “Excellence is not a gift, but a skill that takes practice. We do not act rightly because we are excellent. In fact, we achieve excellence by acting rightly.” – Plato

42. “Aspire greatly. Anything less than a commitment to excellence becomes an acceptance of mediocrity.” – Brian Tracy

43. “The extent of your impact on the world depends on the size of your devotion to excellence.” – Robin Sharma

44. “We need to internalize this idea of excellence. Not many folks spend a lot of time trying to be excellent.” – Barack Obama

45. “Our attitude to focus on excellence not only made us successful but also timelessly inspirational.” – Kishore Bansal

46. “We can never achieve and succeed without first making excellence second nature.” – Jolene Church

47. “Striving for excellence motivates you.” – Harriet B. Braiker

48. “If you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less than excellent work.” – Thomas J. Watson

49. “The future belongs to only those who would attain excellence in the field of their own choice.” – Abhijit Naskar

Also read: Consistency Quotes

Excellence Quotes for Everyone Who Needs a Guide to Succeed

50. “If you deliver excellence right now, that gives you the best shot at the best future you’ve got coming.” – Robert Forster

51. “If you want to achieve excellence, you must refuse to let anything stand in the way of your potential.” – Sai Pradeep

52. “Blossoming out through one’s comfort zone should be well-meaning so as to achieve newer levels of excellence.” – Priyavrat Thareja

53. “A passive mindset manages to live with mediocre, but an active mindset leads to change until excellence results.” – Orrin Woodward

54. “Either find a way or make one. You can bend but you can never break if you want to achieve excellence.” – Ziad K. Abdelnour

55. “Excellence is the unlimited ability to improve the quality of what you have to offer.” – Rick Pitino

56. “Persistence is the twin sister of excellence. One is a matter of quality. The other, a matter of time.” – Habeeb Akande

Also read: Success Quotes, Persistence Quotes

Insightful Excellence Quotes to Increase Your Knowledge

57. “As long as you remain true to yourself and continue training with sincerity, nobody can stop you from achieving excellence.” – Milkha Singh

58. “Do you know great minds enjoy excellence, average minds love mediocrity, and small minds adore comfort zones?” – Onyi Anyado

59. “The excellent person manages himself. He will not allow the environment to manage him.” – Rex Resurreccion

60. “Excellence must be achieved through the eyes of those who judge us. Once achieved, it can only be maintained with constant innovation.” – Tom Collins

What Are Your Main Motivations for Pursuing Excellence?

Excellence means doing your best consistently and without any doubt. Although trying to reach it may sound simple and easy, it is something that everyone will struggle with. After all, we are just humans who have down times and get demotivated.

In these low points of life, we must remind ourselves of our primary motivations. Try to remember the reasons why you started to pursue excellence and be the best you can be. Things may change, but our goal of being the best will still be the light that shines at the end of our tunnel.

It will be a tiring journey uphill, so feel free to stop and rest every now and then. Use this time to reflect and think deeply about your decisions in life. No matter what, the important thing is that you never lose sight of your goals.

Hopefully, this collection of excellence quotes was able to inspire you to keep doing your best in life. Be proud of yourself and continue attempting to reach your full potential!

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Karen Danao

Hi, I’m Karen, a content curator and writer for Quote Ambition; I’m also a marketing and advertising professional. Beyond the keyboard and the screen, I’m someone who’s out to enjoy every bit that life has to offer!

Poetry, philosophy, history, and movies are all topics I love writing about! However, my true passion is in traveling, photography, and finding common ground to which everyone from different cultures can relate.

With the many places I’ve been to, I found that love, inspiration, and happiness are some things that bring people together. No matter how different we are on the outside, I’m a true believer that our emotions don’t lie; if you dig deep into our psyche, we’re all the same inside.

This belief was further amplified when I joined Quote Ambition. Through the quotes I’ve read, collected, organized, and written about, I found that humans are resilient, creative, and compassionate.

We take from each others’ hearts and courage, and it’s through our individual experiences that we learn how to rise above our challenges and pain. In so many ways, Quote Ambition is a platform that allows people from all over the world to gain the inspiration they need anytime, anywhere!

You can find me on MuckRack and LinkedIn.