We often imagine perfection as something finished and flawless, yet most wisdom traditions remind us that a life well-lived is shaped through effort, wonder, and becoming — not polish. These quotations hold that softened truth: perfection isn’t a requirement for beauty. It’s simply an invitation to show up with sincerity, with learning, and with heart.

“Perfect happiness is the absence of happiness; perfect glory is the absence of glory.” ~ Chuang Tzu

The more perfect a thing is, the more susceptible to good and bad treatment it is. ~ Dante Alighieri

So much perfection argues rottenness somewhere. ~ Beatrix Potter

Striving to better, oft we mar what's well. ~ William Shakespeare

Faultless to a fault. ~ Robert Browning

Have no fear of perfection — you'll never reach it. ~ Salvador Dalí

Perfection is a trifle dull. It is not the least of life's ironies that this, which we all aim at, is better not quite achieved. ~ W. Somerset Maugham

Don't expect people to behave perfectly — after all, they are people, with all the faults and frailties of the human condition. ~ Donald M. Fehr

It is through Art, and through Art only, that we can realize our perfection. ~ Oscar Wilde

The gulls who scorn perfection for the sake of travel go nowhere, slowly. Those who put aside travel for the sake of perfection go anywhere, instantly. ~ Richard Bach

A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time. ~ François Voltaire

When you realize how perfect everything is, you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky. ~ Buddha

Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing perfectly. ~ Robert H. Schuller

No good work can be perfect. The demand for perfection is always a sign of a misunderstanding of the ends of art. ~ John Ruskin

Only in grammar can you be more than perfect. ~ William Safire

The man with insight enough to admit his limitations comes nearest to perfection. ~ Johann von Goethe

Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep moving. ~ Neil Gaiman