Excuses, Excuses

I hate excuses. I despise them with a passion. Every time I hear an excuse, it’s like listening to nails across a chalkboard. (I’m dating myself.) So, I am dedicating this post to various quotes about excuses. Take one. Memorize it. Internalize it. Every time you feel yourself giving an excuse, remember one of the quotes and find a solution instead.

"Excuses are tools of the incompetent, and those who specialize in them seldom go far."

An excuse is worse than a lie, for an excuse is a lie, guarded. Alexander Pope

Don't make excuses, make good. Elbert Hubbard

Every vice has its excuse ready. Publilius Syrus

He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else. Benjamin Franklin

Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you, never excuse yourself. Henry Ward Beecher

If you don't want to do something, one excuse is as good as another. Yiddish Proverb

Nothing is impossible; there are ways that lead to everything, and if we had sufficient will we should always have sufficient means. It is often merely for an excuse that we say things are impossible. Francois De La Rochefoucauld

The best job goes to the person who can get it done without passing the buck or coming back with excuses. Napoleon Hill

There's a difference between interest and commitment. When you're interested in doing something, you do it only when circumstance permit. When you're committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results. Art Turock

We are all manufacturers. Making good, making trouble, or making excuses. H. V. Adolt

There aren't nearly enough crutches in the world for all the lame excuses. Marcus Stroup

Excuses are the nails used to build a house of failure. Don Wilder

Difficulty is the excuse history never accepts. Edward R. Murrow

It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one. George Washington

People with integrity do what they say they are going to do. Others have excuses. Laura Schlessinger

For many people, an excuse is better than an achievement because an achievement, no matter how great, leaves you having to prove yourself again in the future; but an excuse can last for life. Eric Hoffer

 “Man gives every reason for his conduct save one, every excuse for his crimes save one, every plea for his safety save one; and that one is his cowardice” George Bernard Shaw

I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took an excuse. Florence Nightingale

  

Excuses are tools of the incompetent used to build monuments to nothing. For those who specialize in them shall never be good at anything else."

Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses. George Washington Carver

  

Bad excuses are worse than none. Thomas Fuller

Never ruin an apology with an excuse. Kimberly Johnson

“Love will find a way. Indifference will find an excuse.”

“Bad things are always going to happen in life. People will hurt you. But you can't use that as an excuse to fail or to hurt someone back. You'll only hurt yourself.”

“Pessimism is an excuse for not trying and a guarantee to a personal failure.” Bill Clinton

“Destiny: A tyrant's authority for crime and a fool's excuse for failure.” Ambrose Bierce

We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse. Rudyard Kipling

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