Monsieur Foinet got up and made as if to go, but he changed his mind, and, stopping, put his hand on Philip's shoulder.But if you were going to ask me my advice, I should say: take your courage in both hands and try your luck at something else. It sounds very hard, but let me tell you this: I would give all I have in the world if someone had given me that advice when I was your age and I had taken it.Philip looked up at him with surprise. The master forced his lips into a smile, but his eyes remained grave and sad.It is cruel to discover one's mediocrity only when it's too late. It does not improve the temper.He gave a little laugh as he said the last words and quickly walked out of the room.

The world admires wealth and velocity— these are the things for which everyone strives. Railroads, the post, steamboats, and all possible modes of communication are the means by which the world overeducates itself and freezes itself in mediocrity.

In the republic of mediocrity, genius is dangerous.

He was marked out by his relentless ability to find fault with others' mediocrity--suggesting that a certain type of intelligence may be at heart nothing more or less than a superior capacity for dissatisfaction.

Everyone, either from modesty or egotism, hides away the best and most delicate of his soul's possessions; to gain the esteem of others, we must only ever show our ugliest sides; this is how we keep ourselves on the common level

You know you've reached a new plateau of group mediocrity when even a Canadian is alarmed by your lack of individuality.

EpitaphDen Tigern ertrann ichDie Wanzen nährte ichAufgefressen wurde ichVon den Mittelmäßigkeiten.

Do you know the hallmark of a second rater? It's resentment of another man's achievement. Those touchy mediocrities who sit trembling lest someone's work prove greater than their own - they have no inkling of the loneliness that comes when you reach the top. The loneliness for an equal - for a mind to respect and an achievement to admire. They bare their teeth at you from out of their rat holes,thinking that you take pleasure in letting your brilliance dim them - while you'd give a year of my life to see a flicker of talent anywhere among them. They envy achievement, and their dream of greatness is a world where all men have become their acknowledged inferiors. They don't know that that dream is the infallible proof of mediocrity, because that sort of world is what the man of achievement would not be able to bear. They have no way of knowing what he feels when surrounded by inferiors - hatred? no, not hatred, but boredom - the terrible, hopeless, draining, paralyzing boredom. Of what account are praise and adulation from men whom you don't respect? Have you ever felt the longing for someone you could admire? For something, not to look down at, but up to?I've felt it all my life, she said.

If you stay passionate and committed, mediocrity will never be eager to befriend you.

You were born for more than just living in mediocrity and dying after your time here evaporates.

To become a better you, admit that you were not born for the floor. Refuse to embrace mediocrity anytime anywhere.

Greatness begins where mediocrity ends.

Women want mediocre men, and men are working to become as mediocre as possible.

Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them.

When small men attempt great enterprises, they always end by reducing them to the level of their mediocrity.

As a rule, the man who can do all things equally well is a very mediocre individual.

The way to get on in the world is to be neither more nor less wise, neither better nor worse than your neighbours.

Mediocrity has no greater consolation than in the thought that genius is not immortal.

When half-gods go, The gods arrive.

There is always a heavy demand for fresh mediocrity. In every generation the least cultivated taste has the largest appetite.