"Heh. And this guy's a bit of a perfectionist. When a performance goes the least bit wrong he goes into this funk... Just like today."
— Daryan Crescend on Klavier Gavin, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, Case 4-3: "Turnabout Serenade"
Lo: Almost perfect.
Li: One hair out of place.
Azula: "Almost" isn't good enough!
Li: One hair out of place.
Azula: "Almost" isn't good enough!
— Avatar: The Last Airbender, "The Avatar State"
Mike Lazaridis: I will build a prototype, but I'll do it perfectly or I don't do it.
Jim Balsillie: Mike, are you familiar with the saying "Perfect is the enemy of good"?
Mike: Well, "good enough" is the enemy of humanity.
Jim Balsillie: Mike, are you familiar with the saying "Perfect is the enemy of good"?
Mike: Well, "good enough" is the enemy of humanity.
Sayori: You know... I don't think you give yourself enough credit.
Monika: What? What do you mean?
Sayori: Like... I dunno, I feel like I can tell from talking to you today. It seems like you're always afraid of doing something wrong.
Monika: Yeah, but...
Sayori: Would you call yourself a perfectionist?
Monika: ... ...Yeah. Yeah, I definitely am. I mean... I always have an idea in my head of how I want things to go. And it's like, I can't accept anything less than that. But I think in the end, it helps me try my hardest at everything... so I don't think it's that bad. Like with this club, we have such an opportunity to make it into exactly how we envision it. But it feels like we only have one shot at it.
Monika: What? What do you mean?
Sayori: Like... I dunno, I feel like I can tell from talking to you today. It seems like you're always afraid of doing something wrong.
Monika: Yeah, but...
Sayori: Would you call yourself a perfectionist?
Monika: ... ...Yeah. Yeah, I definitely am. I mean... I always have an idea in my head of how I want things to go. And it's like, I can't accept anything less than that. But I think in the end, it helps me try my hardest at everything... so I don't think it's that bad. Like with this club, we have such an opportunity to make it into exactly how we envision it. But it feels like we only have one shot at it.
— Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!, Trust Side Story
"Fulgrim addressed the two hundred warriors who were then all that the legion could muster. To them, he gave the sacred task of bringing the Emperor's Wisdom to all the stars in the sky. 'We are His children,' the Book of Primarchs relates he told them. 'Let all who look upon us know this. Only by imperfection can we fail him. We will not fail!'"
"Many an inventor has collapsed under the pressure to create a flawless design."
"Never second best."
— Hanzo, Overwatch
"I saw how hard you worked on your tricks, staying up late every night to practice. And I know you. You always get everything picture-perfect."
— Apollo Justice to Trucy Wright, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice, Case 6-2: "The Magical Turnabout"
"Just now Sviatoslav Richter realized, much to his regret, that he always made a mistake in the third measure before the end of the second part of the 'Italian Concerto'. As a matter of fact, through forty years — and no musician or technician ever pointed it out to him – he played 'F-sharp' rather than 'F'. The same mistake can be found in the previous recording made by Maestro Richter in the fifties."
— Sviatoslav Richter, Disclaimer printed on inner sleeve of a CD
Rick: What are you doing?
Morty: Do you want your shelf level or not?
Rick: And if I say "yes", you're gonna provide that for me with that?note
Morty: Yes. See the bubble?
Rick: I'm familiar with the bubble, Morty. I also dabble in precision, and if you think you can even approach it with your sad, naked, caveman eyeball and a bubble of fucking air, you are the reason this species is a failure, and it makes me angry!
Morty: Do you want your shelf level or not?
Rick: And if I say "yes", you're gonna provide that for me with that?note
Morty: Yes. See the bubble?
Rick: I'm familiar with the bubble, Morty. I also dabble in precision, and if you think you can even approach it with your sad, naked, caveman eyeball and a bubble of fucking air, you are the reason this species is a failure, and it makes me angry!
— Rick and Morty, "Morty's Mind Blowers"
"This can't be happening! I can't have a flaw! I'm supposed to be flawless! If I'm not perfect, then... who am I?! ...Who — Who is anyone?!"
— White Diamond, Steven Universe, "Change Your Mind"
"One thing the Garou tend to continually downplay or overlook is the fact that the Weaver is, indeed, full-blown, bull-moose crazy. She's just as crazy as the Wyrm, but in a different way: she's a perfectionist, bar-none. It's this drive to perfection that causes her to calcify things into stasis — because, after all, once something is perfect, there's nowhere else left for it to go except back into IMperfection. And a perfectionist can't stand that, not one bit."
— Werewolf: The Apocalypse — Book of the Weaver
"He thought nothing of smashing a violin over the head of an incompetent player or kicking a pregnant soprano in the stomach if she sang out of tune. His sole ideal in art was perfection; human failings were not permitted to stand in the way."
— Denis Stevens on Jean-Baptiste Lully, The Story of Great Music: From the Renaissance
