A common danger tends to concord. Communism is the exploitation of the strong by the weak. In Communism, inequality comes from placing mediocrity on a level with excellence.
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

A talent somewhat above mediocrity, shrewd and not too sensitive, is more likely to rise in the world than genius.
Charles Horton Cooley

All good is hard. All evil is easy. Dying, losing, cheating, and mediocrity is easy. Stay away from easy.
Scott Alexander

All greatness of character is dependent on individuality. The man who has no other existence than that which he partakes in common with all around him, will never have any other than an existence of mediocrity.
James F. Cooper

Any corporate policy and plan which is typical of the industry is doomed to mediocrity. Where this is not so, it should be possible to demonstrate that all other competitors are at a distinct disadvantage.
Bruce Henderson

Any sort of pretension induces mediocrity in art and life alike.
Margot Fonteyn

Anyone in the humor business isn't thinking clearly if he doesn't surround himself with idea people. Otherwise, you settle for mediocrity - or you burn yourself out.
Hank Ketcham

Being famous is not something that would make me feel successful - unless one was striving for mediocrity.
William Hurt

Creative Artists Agency put together a project of extraordinary mediocrity and colossal stupidity. Otherwise, it was great.
Mikhail Baryshnikov

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

Go for the gold: better one great column and some undistinguished ones than constant mediocrity.
Allan Sloan

Good behavior is the last refuge of mediocrity.
Henry S. Haskins

Great artists are people who find the way to be themselves in their art. Any sort of pretension induces mediocrity in art and life alike.
Margot Fonteyn

I have a horror of not rising above mediocrity.
Robert Baldwin

I hope this series is good work, but it is in the half-hour medium, which is limited to a kind of mediocrity that sponsors are just dying to have right now, and the public, for some reason, is unconsciously demanding.
Jackie Cooper

I sometimes make pictures which are not up to my standard, but then it can only be said of a mediocrity that all his work is up to his standard.
Ernst Lubitsch

I try to keep an open mind but I'm so tired of the mediocrity.
Clea Duvall

If you stick with a vision, it might not all work, but some of it will be absolute genius. To me, 15 minutes worth of absolute genius in a film is so much better than two hours of mediocrity. I would rather pay to see something different like that.
Kim Cattrall

In America, I would say New York and New Orleans are the two most interesting food towns. In New Orleans, they don't have a bad deli. There's no mediocrity accepted.
Mario Batali

In the republic of mediocrity, genius is dangerous.
Robert Green Ingersoll