A Quote by Doris Lessing

There is only one real sin and that is to persuade oneself that the second best is anything but second best.

Doris Lessing

Quote Topics

Best Anything Oneself Only Persuade Real Second Second Best Sin

Quote Author

Doris Lessing
English - Novelist
October 22, 1919 - November 17, 2013

I was the second-best player in high school. I was the second pick in the draft. I've been second in the MVP voting three times. I came in second in the Finals. I'm tired of being second. I'm not going to settle for that. I'm done with it.

Kevin Durant

Being educated means to prefer the best not only to the worst but to the second best.

William Lyon Phelps

You are the only you ... You are the best you. You will always be the second best anyone else.

Leo Buscaglia

The most important thing is to be successful on the field. Being second in the world is an unbelievable achievement. But for me, as a coach, you want to be the best - you get nothing for being second. We want to be the best in our field.

Phil Neville

Any guy, even imaginary, would just feel like second best. Second best to what? I don't even have an image of the perfect boyfriend. I just know he must exist. Because I have all these feelings-love, longing, wanting to be touched, dreaming of being kissed-yet no one to focus them on.

Tabitha Suzuma

Why be second best at anything?

Paul Heyman

The best thing to do, if you really want to be good, is drink vodka all day, from the second you get up to the second they say, "Cut!"

Kurt Fuller

In marketing I've seen only one strategy that can't miss - and that is to market to your best customers first, your best prospects second and the rest of the world last.

John Romero

We give our best affections to the beautiful, only our second best to the useful.

Christian Nestell Bovee

Heinrich Zimmerhe had a little saying : The best things cant be told - because they are transcendent, inexpressible truths. The second best are misunderstood : myths, which are metaphoric attempts to point to the way toward the first. And the third best have to do with history, science, biography, and so on. The only kind of talking that can be understood is this last kind.

Joseph Campbell

Basic training was hard, but I made it - because I wanted to be the best me. Sometimes you have to learn that being the best you is being the second best you. I learned the hard way that the army doesn't want people who always come first. Otherwise, there would be only one person in the army.

Ant Middleton

Give me the third best technology. The second best won't be ready in time. The best will never be ready.

Robert Watson-Watt

In accordance with the terms of the Clarke-Asimov treaty, the second-best science writer dedicates this book to the second-best science-fiction writer. [dedication to Isaac Asimov from Arthur C. Clarke in his book Report on Planet Three]

Arthur C. Clarke

The life of theoretical philosophy is the best and happiest a man can lead. Few men are capable of it and then only intermittently. For the rest there is a second-best way of life, that of moral virtue and practical wisdom.