Don’t waste life in doubts and fears; spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour’s duties will be the best preparation for the hours or ages that follow it.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Performance, and performance alone, dictates the predator in any food chain.
—Unknown
It is hard to go beyond your public. If they are satisfied with cheap performance, you will not easily arrive at better. If they know what is good, and require it. you will aspire and burn until you achieve it. But from time to time, in history, men are born a whole age too soon.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
I know the price of success: dedication, hard work and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.
—Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American Architect
If a man or woman is born ten years sooner or later, their whole aspect and performance shall be different.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Concentration, Confidence, Competitive urge, Capacity for enjoyment.
—Arnold Palmer (b.1929) American Sportsperson
Don’t lower your expectations to meet your performance. Raise your level of performance to meet your expectations. Expect the best of yourself, and then do what is necessary to make it a reality.
—Ralph Marston
Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.
—John Wooden (1910–2010) American Sportsperson
I don’t feel right unless I have a sport to play or at least a way to work up a sweat.
—Hank Aaron (1934–2021) American Baseball Player
We never do anything well till we cease to think about the manner of doing it.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
Let your performance do the thinking.
—Charlotte Bronte (1816–1855) English Novelist, Poet
Perform good deeds; you will not regret them.
—Moroccan Proverb
The medals don’t mean anything and the glory doesn’t last. It’s all about your happiness. The rewards are going to come, but my happiness is just loving the sport and having fun performing.
—Jackie Joyner-Kersee (b.1962) American Athlete
My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging.
—Hank Aaron (1934–2021) American Baseball Player
Each honest calling, each walk of life, has its own elite, its own aristocracy based on excellence of performance.
—James Bryant Conant (1893–1978) American Chemist, Educator
Performance is your reality. Forget everything else.
—Harold S. Geneen (1910–1997) British-American Businessman
What we think or what we know or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do.
—John Ruskin (1819–1900) English Writer, Art Critic
Life has no rehearsals, only performances.
—Unknown
Slumps are like a soft bed. They’re easy to get into and hard to get out of.
—Johnny Bench (b.1947) American Sportsperson
The negative is comparable to the composer’s score and the print to its performance. Each performance differs in subtle ways.
—Ansel Adams (1902–84) American Photographer
Everything depends upon execution; having just a vision is no solution.
—Stephen Sondheim (b.1930) American Musician, Composer, Songwriter
Practice as if you are the worst, perform as if you are the best.
—Indian Proverb
Is it not strange that desire should so many years outlive performance?
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Many things difficult in design prove easy in performance.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
How much we like ourselves governs our performance.
—Brian Tracy (b.1944) American Author, Motivational Speaker
Wise to resolve, patient to perform.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
You have to perform at a consistently higher level than others. That’s the mark of a true professional.
—Joe Paterno (1926–2012) American Sportsperson
One body cannot perform two services.
—Chinese Proverb
Great works are done when one is not calculating and thinking.
—D. T. Suzuki (1870–1966) Japanese Buddhist Philosopher
The man who does not take pride in his own performance performs nothing in which to take pride.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr. (1874–1956) American Business Executive