If you fear making anyone mad, then you ultimately probe for the lowest common denominator of human achievement.

Meaning of the quote

If you're afraid of upsetting anyone, you'll end up aiming for the easiest, most basic level of success. You won't take risks or try to be great, because you'll be too worried about what others might think. Instead, you should focus on doing your best, even if it means some people might get a little upset. That's the only way to truly achieve something remarkable.

About Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter had a fascinating life as the 39th President of the United States. From his early days in Georgia to his post-presidency humanitarian work, Carter’s story is one of service, activism, and a continued commitment to peace and progress.

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More quotes from Jimmy Carter

My decision to register women confirms what is already obvious throughout our society-that women are now providing all types of skills in every profession. The military should be no exception.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

We cannot be both the world’s leading champion of peace and the world’s leading supplier of the weapons of war.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

I’ve looked on many women with lust. I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times. God knows I will do this and forgives me.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

We must make it clear that a platform of ‘I hate gay men and women’ is not a way to become president of the United States.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

Human rights is the soul of our foreign policy, because human rights is the very soul of our sense of nationhood.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense human rights invented America.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

You just have to have a simple faith.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

It’s not necessary to fear the prospect of failure but to be determined not to fail.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

I look forward to these confrontations with the press to kind of balance up the nice and pleasant things that come to me as president.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

Like music and art, love of nature is a common language that can transcend political or social boundaries.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

I say to you quite frankly that the time for racial discrimination is over.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

We should live our lives as though Christ were coming this afternoon.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

You can do what you have to do, and sometimes you can do it even better than you think you can.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

You can not divorce religious belief and public service. I’ve never detected any conflict between God’s will and my political duty. If you violate one, you violate the other.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

I have often wanted to drown my troubles, but I can’t get my wife to go swimming.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

People make a big fuss over you when you’re President. But I’m very serious about doing everything I can to make sure that it doesn’t go to my head.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

Testing oneself is best when done alone.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

For this generation, ours, life is nuclear survival, liberty is human rights, the pursuit of happiness is a planet whose resources are devoted to the physical and spiritual nourishment of its inhabitants.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

What has happened at Guantanamo Bay… does not represent the will of the American people. I’m embarrassed about it, I think its wrong. I think it does give terrorists an unwarranted excuse to use the despicable means to hurt innocent people.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

You can’t divorce religious belief and public service I’ve never detected any conflict between God’s will and my political duty. If you violate one, you violate the other.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

If you fear making anyone mad, then you ultimately probe for the lowest common denominator of human achievement.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

If you’re totally illiterate and living on one dollar a day, the benefits of globalization never come to you.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

I hate to see complacency prevail in our lives when it’s so directly contrary to the teaching of Christ.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

Globalization, as defined by rich people like us, is a very nice thing… you are talking about the Internet, you are talking about cell phones, you are talking about computers. This doesn’t affect two-thirds of the people of the world.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other’s children.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

Sadat was a great and good man, and his most bitter and dangerous enemies were people who were obsessed with hatred for his peaceful goals.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

Unless both sides win, no agreement can be permanent.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

To deal with individual human needs at the everyday level can be noble sometimes.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

It is difficult for the common good to prevail against the intense concentration of those who have a special interest, especially if the decisions are made behind locked doors.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. People have the right to expect that these wants will be provided for by this wisdom.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

I thought then, and I think now, that the invasion of Iraq was unnecessary and unjust. And I think the premises on which it was launched were false.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

It is good to realize that if love and peace can prevail on earth, and if we can teach our children to honor nature’s gifts, the joys and beauties of the outdoors will be here forever.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

Republicans are men of narrow vision, who are afraid of the future.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

There should be an honest attempt at the reconciliation of differences before resorting to combat.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

I think what’s going on in Guantanamo Bay and other places is a disgrace to the U.S.A. I wouldn’t say it’s the cause of terrorism, but it has given impetus and excuses to potential terrorists to lash out at our country and justify their despicable acts.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

The experience of democracy is like the experience of life itself-always changing, infinite in its variety, sometimes turbulent and all the more valuable for having been tested by adversity.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

At the Carter Center we work with victims of oppression, and we give support to human rights heroes.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

In this outward and physical ceremony we attest once again to the inner and spiritual strength of our Nation. As my high school teacher, Miss Julia Coleman, used to say: ‘We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles.’

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

Whatever starts in California unfortunately has an inclination to spread.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other’s children.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

The best way to enhance freedom in other lands is to demonstrate here that our democratic system is worthy of emulation.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

Aggression unopposed becomes a contagious disease.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

The awareness that health is dependent upon habits that we control makes us the first generation in history that to a large extent determines its own destiny.

Jimmy Carter

president of the United States from 1977 to 1981