Averageness Quotes & Sayings

At her easiest, she was hard, because her brain was always working, working, working - I had to exert myself just to keep pace with her. I'd spend an hour crafting a casual e-mail to her, I became a student of arcana so I could keep her interested: the Lake poets, the code duello, the French Revolution. Her mind was both wide and deep, and I got smarter being with her. And more considerate, and more active, and more alive, and almost electric, because for Amy, love was like drugs or booze or porn: There was no plateau. Each exposure needed to be more intense than the last to achieve the same result.
Amy made me believe I was exceptional, that I was up to her level of play. That was both our making and undoing. Because I couldn't handle the demands of greatness. I began craving ease and averageness, and I hated myself for it, and ultimately, I realized, I punished her for it. I turned her into the brittle, prickly thing she became. — Gillian Flynn

Look, choosing to wait until marriage makes me feel empowered. But if the same choice cripples you, then it wasn't the right one. — Rachael Allen

The latent abundance of your inner most resources matters less. What matter most is the impact you can make with your inner resources and the distinctive footprints you can leave with what is within you. The excuse not to dare is there for everybody. When you see so many people crowded at the entrance, think of the roofing and if the roofing is too high, think of the next door and if the next door is not penetrable, create a door within the wall. — Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

When I was 16, I was taught by a wonderful teacher who let me ignore the Greek syllabus and just read Homer. — Alice Oswald

The Excellence Manifesto #2

I will resist impatience.
I will resist deceitfulness.
I will resist bitterness.
I will resist ignorance.
I will resist foolishness.
I will resist pridefulness.
I will resist unrighteousness.

I will conquer laziness.
I will subdue indifference.
I will beat incompetence.
I will defeat averageness.
I will overcome fearfulness.
I will transcend weakness.
I will quash unproductiveness. — Matshona Dhliwayo

I don't plan on going back to legal work. I wanted an international career, and finance seemed to be where some interesting career opportunities were. — Nick Johnson

Amy made me believe I was exceptional, that I was up to her level of play. That was both our making and undoing Because I couldn't handle the demands of greatness. I began craving ease and averageness. — Gillian Flynn

In ordinary language: as a result of the pressure of the crowd, most people lead lives that are inauthentic and irresponsible. The "they" watches over "everything exceptional that thrusts itself to the fore. Every kind of priority gets noiselessly suppressed." There is a general "levelling down," a socially enforced "averageness," in which everything authentic "gets glossed over as something that has long been well known. — Peter Heehs

Averageness is a quality we must put up with. Men march toward civilization in column formation, and by the time the van has learned to admire the masters the rear is drawing reluctantly away from the totem pole. — Frank Moore Colby

Characters in a book are very much like personalities divvied up within a family. In the end, it all averages out to a sort of overall averageness. — Douglas Coupland

Do you ever read a book and it just changes your life? A book you didn't really think too much about when you picked it up- when you opened it and considered the averageness of its first few pages? But when you're done, your head hurts and your head is spinning and you question the authenticity of your own life, and you vow to be better and do better, to love deeper and laugh harder. I know that something such as a collection of meagre pages doesn't mean much to some people, but I literally could not think of a world without literary fiction (or non-fiction for that matter). I feel so blessed that I get to experience other peoples thoughts and imaginations through a book. — Unknown

I wouldn't recommend being a musician to anyone. It's not glamorous. It's a lot of being dirty, not eating, playing for five people and one of them is the bartender. — Dan Reynolds

Maybe the songs that we sing are wrong / Maybe the dreams that we dream are gone / So bring it on home and it won't be long / It's gettin' better man! — Noel Gallagher

As the blood of Christ is the fountain of all merit, so the Spirit of Christ is the fountain of all spiritual life; and until he quicken us and infuse the principle of the divine life into our souls, we can put forth no hand, or vital act of faith, to lay hold upon Jesus Christ. — John Flavel

Because of our freedom to pursue life, liberty, and happiness. People assume the most important word in that sentence is 'freedom,' when, in fact, it is 'pursue.' If we don't pursue life, we are just as free to waste it. Our averageness is the degree to which we fail to attempt that pursuit. — Ryan Quinn

When something really bad is going on in a culture, the average guy doesn't see it. He can't. He's average. And is surrounded by and immersed in the cant and discourse of the status quo. — George Saunders

A scientist's accomplishments are equal to the integral of his ability integrated over the hours of his effort. — Henry B. Eyring

It's time to accept that I am average, and to stop making this acceptance of my averageness into a bereavement. — Sara Baume

No one accused Frederick James Furnivall of averageness, and his career highlights the ups and downs of editorial scholarship. As eccentric as he was energetic, a Christian socialist turned agnostic, Furnivall gained a reputation for hot pink neckties, sculling on the Thames with shopgirls, and hours toiling over manuscripts in the British Museum. — James Turner

It's true that I've never had a burning desire to rebel against my parents. — Taylor Swift