"Commonplaceness, the surrender to the average, that..." - Quote by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

“Be above it! Make the world serve your purpose, but do not serve it.”

“Science arose from poetry... when times change the two can meet again on a higher level as friends.”

“The style of an author is a faithful copy of his mind.”

“No wonder we are all more or less pleased with mediocrity, since it leaves us at rest, and gives the same comfortable feeling as when one associates with his equals.”

“The greatest secret in the world is that you only have to be a small measurable amount better than mediocrity ...and you've got it made.”

“One way to avoid criticism is to do nothing and to be a nobody. The world will then not bother you.”

“It is a striving to attain the best. To throttle it would mean to stop all progress. Certain men do not need to compete. They are pioneers.”

“If you want to do your duty properly, you should do just a little more than that.”

“He should sweep streets so well that all the host of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lives a great street-sweeper who did his job well'”