Other related topics at: Virtue and Vice 818. Perfectionism "It sometimes happens that too close an attention to minute exactness, or a too rigorous habit of examining every thing by the standard of perfection, vitiates the temper rather than improves the understanding, and teaches the mind to discern faults with unhappy penetration." Johnson: Rambler #74 (December 1, 1750) Link 819. Perfectionism; Vision "It is incident ... to men of vigorous imagination to please themselves too much with futurities, and to fret because those expectations are disappointed which should never have been formed. Knowledge and genius are often enemies to quiet, by suggesting ideas of excellence, which men and the performances of men cannot attain." Johnson: Rambler #74 (December 1, 1750) Link 1,116. Peevishness; Perfectionism "He that pleases himself too much with minute exactness, and submits to endure nothing in accommodations, attendance, or address below the point of perfection, will, whenever he enters the crowd of life, be harassed with innumerable distresses, from which those who have not in the same manner increased their sensations find no disturbance. His exotic softness will shrink at the coarseness of vulgar felicity, like a plant transplanted to northern nurseries from the dews and sunshine of the tropical regions." Johnson: Rambler #112 (April 13, 1751) Link 1,117. Perfectionism "There will always be a wide interval between practical and ideal excellence; and, therefore, if we allow not ourselves to be satisfied while we can perceive any error or defect, we must refer our hopes of ease to some other period of existence." Johnson: Rambler #112 (April 13, 1751) Link 1,194. Over-Anticipation; Perfectionism; Vision "He whose penetration extends to remote consequences, and who, whenever he applies his attention to any design, discovers new prospects of advantage and possibilities of improvement, will not easily be persuaded that his project is ripe for execution; but will superadd one contrivance to another, endeavour to unite various purposes in one operation, multiply complications, and refine niceties, till he is entangled in his own scheme, and bewildered in the perplexity of various intentions." Johnson: Rambler #134 (June 29, 1751) Link 1,195. Perfectionism "He that has abilities to conceive perfection will not easily be content without it; and, since perfection cannot be reached, will lose the opportunity of doing well in the vain hope of unattainable excellence." Johnson: Rambler #134 (June 29, 1751) Link 1,388. Myopia; Perfectionism "Some seem always to read with the microscope of criticism, and employ their whole attention upon minute elegance, or faults scarcely visible to common observation. The dissonance of a syllable, the recurrence of the same sound, the repetition of a particle, the smallest deviation from propriety, the slightest defect in construction or arrangement, swell before their eyes into enormities. As they discern with great exactness, they comprehend but a narrow compass, and know nothing of the justness of the design, the general spirit of the performance, the artifice of connection, or the harmony of the parts; they never conceive how small a proportion that which they are busy contemplating bears to the whole, or how the petty inaccuracies with which they are offended are absorbed and lost in the general excellence." Johnson: Rambler #176 (November 23, 1751) Link