If you want excellence, you must aim at perfection. It has its drawbacks but being finicky is essential.

Putting Sachin Tendulkar's latest feat in a strictly cricketing context would not be fair to the sportsman. His achievements in the world of cricket need to be seen on a par with efforts in any other field - science, art, literature, etc - to push the frontiers of human excellence.

His Biographer remarked: Of course, ‘Sir, you believe in excellence.' JRD Tata) retorted sharply, 'Not excellence. Perfection. You aim for perfection, you will attain excellence. If you aim for excellence, you will go lower.

There is no real excellence in all this world which can be separated from right living.

If you dwell with unaware people, you will be cold,
But if you dwell with aware ones, you will be a true man
Go, and build your hermit cell inside a furnace, like gold
If you go out of the furnace, you will be frozen solid

If you want excellence, you must aim at perfection. It has its drawbacks but being finicky is essential.

It is excellent for a man to be simple in his tastes, to avoid extravagance, to own no possessions, to entertain no craving for worldly success.

His Biographer remarked: Of course, ‘Sir, you believe in excellence.' JRD Tata) retorted sharply, 'Not excellence. Perfection. You aim for perfection, you will attain excellence. If you aim for excellence, you will go lower.

It was not a ban from the government. It was a cancellation by people who felt I should not be with Stokely because he was a rebel to them. I didn't care about that. He was somebody I loved, who loved me, and it was my life.

Don't you know that a good and excellent person does nothing for the sake of appearances, but only for the sake of having acted right?

A master and way out of the league that the rest of us play in.