"Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit." (Aristotle)
"With regard to excellence, it is not enough to know, but we must try to have and use it." (Aristotel, "Nochomachean Ethics", cca. 340 BC)
"It takes a long time to bring excellence to maturity." (Publilius Syrus, "Moral Sayings", cca. 1st century BC)
"One has attained to mastery when one neither goes wrong nor hesitates in the performance." (Friedrich Nietzsche, "Thoughts on the Prejudices of Morality", 1881)
"Order and simplification are the first steps toward the mastery of a subject - the actual enemy is the unknown." (Thomas Mann, "The Magic Mountain", 1924)
"To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often." (Winston Churchill, [Speech, House of Commons] 1925)
"Creating a new theory is not like destroying an old barn and erecting a skyscraper in its place. It is rather like climbing a mountain, gaining new and wider views, discovering unexpected connections between our starting point and its rich environment. But the point from which we started out still exists and can be seen, although it appears smaller and forms a tiny part of our broad view gained by the mastery of the obstacles on our adventurous way up." (Albert Einstein & Leopold Infeld, "The Evolution of Physics", 1938)
"Civilization is that mode of conduct which points out to man the path of duty. Performance of duty and observance of morality are convertible terms. To observe morality is to attain mastery over our mind and our passions. So doing, we know ourselves." (Mahatma Gandhi, "Hindu Dharma", 1950)
"Leaders value learning and mastery, and so do people who work for leaders. Leaders make it clear that there is no failure, only mistakes that give us feedback and tell us what to do next." (Warren G Bennis, Training and Development Journal, 1984)
"No talent in management is worth more than the ability to master facts - not just any facts, but the ones that provide the best answers. Mastery thus involves knowing what facts you want; where to dig for them; how to dig; how to process the mined ore; and how to use the precious nuggets of information that are finally in your hand. The process can be laborious - which is why it is so often botched." (Robert Heller, "The Supermanagers", 1984)
"The source of good management is found in the imagination of leaders, persons who form new visions and manifest them with a high degree of craft. The blending of vision and craft communicates the purpose. In the arts, people who do that well are masters. In business, they are leaders." (Henry M. Boettinger, Harvard Business Review on Human Relations, 1986)
"People with a high level of personal mastery are able to consistently realize the results that matter most deeply to them-in effect, they approach their life as an artist would approach a work of art. The do that by becoming committed to their own lifelong learning." (Peter M Senge, "The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization", 1990)
"Personal mastery is the discipline of continually clarifying and deepening our personal vision, of focusing our energies, of developing patience, and of seeing reality objectively." (Peter M Senge, "The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization", 1990)
"The discipline of personal mastery [...] starts with clarifying the things that really matter to us (and) living our lives in the service of our highest aspirations." (Peter M Senge, "The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization", 1990)
"Mastery means responsibility, ability to respond in real time to the need of the moment." (Stephen Nachmanovitch, "Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art", 1991
"At the heart of it, mastery is practice. Mastery is staying on the path." (George Leonard, "Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment", 1992)
"Find the heart of it. Make the complex simple, and you can achieve mastery." (Dan Millman, "Living on Purpose: Straight Answers to Life's Tough Questions", 2000)
"Change always implies abandonment. What you're abandoning is an old way of doing things. You're abandoning it because it's old, because time has made it no longer the best way. But it is also (again because it's old) a familiar way. And more important, it is an approach that people have mastered. So the change you are urging upon your people requires them to abandon their mastery of the familiar, and to become novices once again, to become rank beginners at something with self-definitional importance." (Tom DeMarco, "Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency", 2001)
"Mastery is an elusive concept. You never know when you achieve it absolutely and it may not help you to feel you've attained it. We can recognize it more readily in others than we can in ourselves. We have to discover our own definition of it." (Twyla Tharp, 'The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life", 2003)
"Leaders should be aware of how their mental models affect their thinking and may cause 'blind spots' that limit understanding. Becoming aware of assumptions is a first step toward shifting one’s mental model and being able to see the world in new and different ways. Four key issues important to expanding and developing a leader’s mind are independent thinking, open-mindedness, systems thinking, and personal mastery." (Richard L Daft, "The Leadership Experience" 4th Ed., 2008)
"Mastery is not a function of genius or talent. It is a function of time and intense focus applied to a particular field of knowledge." (Robert Greene, "Mastery" 2012)
"Models are formal structures represented in mathematics and diagrams that help us to understand the world. Mastery of models improves your ability to reason, explain, design, communicate, act, predict, and explore." (Scott E Page, "The Model Thinker", 2018)
"Art calls for complete mastery of techniques, developed by reflection within the soul." (Bruce Lee)
"In the pursuit of excellence, there is no finish line." (Robert H Farman)
"Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person." (Albert Einstein)
"The performance of public duty is not the whole of what makes a good life; there is also the pursuit of private excellence." (Bertrand Russell)
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