William Faulkner Quote - Liberty Quotes Blog

"Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself."

by:	William Faulkner (1897-1962)
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Categories:	Accomplishment, Character, Criticism, Determination, Goodness, Individualism, Integrity, Labor, Morals, Perseverance, Progress, Virtue
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Reader comments about this quote:

I try to live by this statement. The products I manufactured were the best in the world. I never ceased trying to improve. -- Mike, Norwalk 1
I always try, except when I don't. -- jim k, Austin 1
I am more into the kinds of sports where it is me vs. the mountain. -- E Archer, NYC 2
Thinking outside the box of accepted orthodoxy, To perceive a house unseen, grown dusty and left unclean. Mark the corners and sweep the steps of Statelier times than these. " All are architects of Fate, Working in these walls of Time; Some with massive deeds and great, Some with ornaments of rhyme. Nothing useless is, or low; Each thing in its place is best; and what seems as idle show Strengthens ans supports the rest. For the structure that we raise, Time is with materials filled; Our todays and yesterdays Are the blocks with which we build. Truly shape and fashion these; Leave no yawning gaps between; Think not, because no man sees, Such things will remain unseen. In the elder days of Art, Builders wrought with greatest care Each minute and unseen part; for the gods see everywhere. Let us do our work as well, Both the unseen and the seen; Make the house were gods may dwell Beautiful, entire, and clean. Else our lives are incomplete, Standing in these walls of Time, Broken stairways , where the feet Stumble, as they seek to climb." ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "The Builders" -- Ronw13, OR 1