PERFECTION
See also: Holiness; Mistakes
Perfection consists not in doing extraordinary things, but in doing ordinary things extraordinarily well. Neglect nothing; the most trivial action may be performed to God.
Angelique Arnauld
Perfection does not consist in macerating or killing the body, but in killing our perverse self-will.
Catherine of Siena
Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
Antoine de Saint Exupery
Christian perfection has but one limit, that of having none.
Gregory of Nyssa
The farther a man knows himself to be from perfection, the nearer he is to it!
Gerard Groote
The crucified state is necessary for us,is good, is best and safest and will bring us more sooner to the height of perfection.
Jean Nicholas Grou
The surest hindrance of success is to have too high a standard of refinement in our own minds, or too high an opinion of the judgment of the public. He who is determined not to be satisfied with anything short of perfection will never do anything to please himself or others.
Hazlitt
There is no such thing as completed or perfect holiness in this life. Progress yes! Perfection no!
Erroll Hulse
Perfection does not lie in the virtues that the soul knows it has, but in the virtues that our Lord sees in it. This is a closed book; hence one has no reason for presumption, but must remain prostrate on the ground with respect to self.
John of the Cross
If you desire to be perfect, sell your will, give it to the poor in spirit, come to Christ in meekness and humility, and follow him to Calvary and the sepulcher.
John of the Cross
Twelve stars for reaching the highest perfection: love of God, love of neighbor, obedience, chastity, poverty, attendance at choir, penance, humility, mortification, prayer, silence, peace.
John of the Cross
No saint on earth can be fully perfect and pure.
Martin Luther
A glad spirit attains to perfection more quickly than any other.
Philip Neri
None of us has lived up to the teachings of Christ.
Eleanor Roosevelt
The plain truth is that there is no literal and absolute perfection among true Christians, so long as they are in the body.
J.C. Ryle
Have we ever seen holier man then the martyred John Bradford, or Hooker, or Usher, or Baxter, or Rutherford, or M’Cheyne? Yet no one can read the writings and letters of these men without seeing that they felt themselves “debtors to mercy and grace” every day, and the very last thing they ever laid claim to was perfection!
J.C. Ryle
I have yet to learn that there is a single passage in Scripture which teaches that a literal perfection, a complete and entire freedom from sin, in thought, or word, or deed, is attainable, or has ever been attained, by any child of Adam in this world.
J.C. Ryle
The fact that perfection is beyond our reach, should not diminish the fervor of our desire after it.
C.H. Spurgeon
Either in spirit, or motive, or lack of zeal, or lack of discretion, we are faulty.
C.H. Spurgeon
An absolutely holy man is a being whom I expect to see in heaven, but not in this poor fallen world.
C.H. Spurgeon
Perfection stands in a man offering all his heart wholly to God, not seeking himself or his own will, either in great things or in small, in time or in eternity, but abiding always unchanged and always yielding to God equal thanks for things pleasing and displeasing, weighing them all in one same balance, as in His love.
Thomas à Kempis
[Perfection] is the devoting, not a part but all our soul, body and substance to God.
John Wesley
The only way to perfection is, to live in the presence of God.
Thomas Wilson
Demand perfection of yourself and you’ll seldom attain it. Fear of making a mistake is the biggest single cause of making one. Relax – pursue excellence, not perfection.
Bud Winter