Quotes About Being Second Best

#1. Yes, Shelby, You're the real best thing in his life. I know. I guess I can deal with being second best."

- Emily to Shelby

Ruth Ford Elward

#2. I'm tired of being your best friend. I'm tired of being second best. I won't settle for that anymore. It's all or nothing, Schuyler. You have to decide. Him or me.
- Oliver Hazzard-Perry

Melissa De La Cruz

#3. I stared at him. Maybe it had been hard for him being second best too.

Jacqueline Wilson

#4. We are not a nation of immigrants. We are a nation of citizens. I am sick and tired of the American citizen being demeaned and treated as a second-class citizen while anybody who crosses the border is treated as the most virtuous human being on the face of the earth.

Mark Levin

#5. Facing this stuff, in real life is not like school, in school, if you make a mistake you can just try again tomorrow, but out there ... when your a second away from being murdered or watching a friend die right before your eyes ... you don't know what that's like.

J.K. Rowling

#6. It just gets hard, always being someone's second choice

Morgan Matson

#7. Two possibilities: making oneself infinitely small or being so. The second is perfection, that is to say, inactivity, the first is beginning, that is to say, action.

Franz Kafka

#8. It's not like being a professional basketball player where you're in a big house. Maybe three, four or five guys make a couple million bucks a year, but that's it. The rest of them have second jobs.

Frank Grillo

#9. You just wish sometimes that people would treat you like a human being rather than seeing your gender first and who you are second.

Frances O'Grady

#10. USAGE, n. The First Person of the literary Trinity, the Second and Third being Custom and Conventionality. Imbued with a decent reverence for this Holy Triad an industrious writer may hope to produce books that will live as long as the fashion.

Ambrose Bierce

#11. Up until recently, I've always been a vintage store guy. I get a lot of my clothes second hand. I really enjoy being able to look through different styles you can find and how eclectic the vintage store vibe is.

Jack Falahee

#12. I started off as a juggler. I used to do a half-hour show on the weekends to make money as a kid. Then I went to Cleveland, Ohio in 1983 to the international jugglers competition junior division and came second. So that was my first job, being a juggler.

Patrick Dempsey

#13. Indeed it is generally the case that men are readier to call rogues clever than simpletons honest, and are ashamed of being the second as they are proud of being the first.

Thucydides

#14. I can do more than anyone suspects. I pride myself on my versatility. It took 32 years of difficult parts, second leads, villains and juveniles. The Oscar changed the quality of the roles I was being offered.

Louis Gossett Jr.

#15. I wondered for a second why I cared so much, but I knew I did. I wanted to be more like the Upper-Cs. Not snobby or mean, but just a bit more. It was hard to explain, I just liked the thought of being dolled up and having a few nice things.

Y.A. Marks

#16. I had so much fun developing and launching my first fragrance with Avon, so for my second fragrance, I really wanted to add a little more edge. Outspoken Intense is a provocative blend of sexy confidence and daring femininity that captures the thrill and excitement of being centre stage.

Fergie

#17. Nothing is like being out there and playing and performing and winning - nothing. But to have an interest in the player? The nerves and everything that goes with it? Seeing what he's learned and how he's done it? That's the second best thing to playing. I think.

Jimmy Connors

#18. I served in all commissioned ranks from a second Lieutenant to a Major General. And during that time, I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street, and for the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism.

Smedley Butler

#19. That is the second time you have spoken out of turn, Miss Granger," said Snape coolly. "Five more points from Gryffindor for being an insufferable know-it-all.

J.K. Rowling

#20. No matter what you do, give it everything you have. Be the best, not the second best.

Michael Jackson

#21. The second attention is the occult side of the being. It is the ability to manipulate others, be it for good or ill intent.

Frederick Lenz

#22. I'm tired of being second ... I'm done with it.

Kevin Durant

#23. I get double credits. First I get the satisfaction credit of being hit on by the sexy DOT inspector, and second I get loyal and true credit for turning him down because I have my personal sexy nerd.

J.D. Robb

#24. Being on a set where the director has lost control is just sickening. No one goes the extra mile, there's a lot of eye-rolling ... it just breeds inertia. If a director is in control, the crew follow their leader. But the second anyone senses the directors are not sure, people just swoop in.

Christine Vachon

#25. People go on about the first time being important, but it's the second time that really matters. Or the second person, anyway.

Nick Hornby

#26. I'm very happy with the outcome of the vote. I totally, totally support equal marriage in law. I don't want anybody in society feeling second best. I don't believe that being gay is a sin.

Stephen Crabb

#27. According to them, everyone wants to be English. Being English is the best thing in the world. (Far behind, the second best thing is being God himself.)

Angela Kiss

#28. As far as they're conserned, I've been kind of a poor second best all my life, or I don't qualify at all compared to my brother. It's rough being around them and feeling like you never measure up. Collin

Danielle Steel

#29. You have been with the same guy for three years. If anyone accuses you of being a whore for sleeping with the second man of your college career, I'll cut a bitch.

Angeline Kace

#30. The best people are always the worst. They drive everyone mad by being so good at second-guessing everything bad.

Criss Jami

#31. First best is falling in love. Second best is being in love. Least best is falling out of love. But any of it is better than never having been in love.

Maya Angelou

#32. The best thing you have to offer the world is yourself. You don't have to copy anyone else. If you do, you're second best. To achieve success is to be first, and that's being yourself.

John Denver

#33. I am not good at first or second impressions, and you have to spend some time with me to know me. Also, I don't want to put my best foot forward and prove something, as that is not me. I would rather be me and have you like me for who I am, instead of being someone else.

Emraan Hashmi

#34. I'm saying that some men are saints. Some are happy being meek and humble and unambitious. Some men are born content to be second-best.

James Clavell

#35. If you get depressed about being the second-best team in the world, then you've got a problem.

Julius Erving

#36. Happiness, it seems to me, consists of two things: first, in being where you belong, and second
and best
in comfortably going through everyday life, that is, having had a good night's sleep and not being hurt by new shoes.

Theodor Fontane

#37. You can't do that kind of thing normally, but normal dumped without a note nearly a month ago. These days, I'll happily set fire to a bridge the second after I've crossed it - I don't plan on being around for the consequences to catch up with me.

D.D. Barant

#38. Being Irish and a citizen of the world, has made me truly appreciate Irish culture, music and history. Whether you're first, second generation Irish or even with no connection to Ireland, you should visit in 2013 for a unique experience.

Liam Neeson

#39. We look at the Web as being our basic power plant, kind of like electricity, so the Web and communicating in this fashion is second nature to us now. It's not like we go brochure, television, mail. It's Web, and then everything else. It's social media first, and everything else.

Ted Leonsis

#40. My best business decision is always to have been unembarrassed about negotiating a decent deal. Not being coy or shy about money is second nature to me.

Anne Robinson

#41. Second chances are not that important. What's important, is being ready when the first chance
is given.

Jay Long

#42. If my parents had made love a tenth of a second earlier or later, I wouldn't exist. What an enormous miracle, just being given life.

Warren Farrell

#43. It is precisely when you are loved a lot that you might realize a second loneliness which is not to be solved but lived. This second loneliness is an existential loneliness that belongs to the basis of our being. It's where we are unfulfilled because only God can fill us.

Henri Nouwen

#44. Paradise is being able to say at that (second before our death) moment: I made some mistakes, but I wasn't a coward. I lived life and did what I had to do.

Paulo Coelho

#45. I missed you so fucking much, baby," he told her between placing frantic open- mouth kisses down her jawline and neck. "Every day. Every second of every day I missed you. It hurt like hell being away from you. It nearly wrecked me ... having to see you and not being able to have you.

Caisey Quinn

#46. I wonder if it's ok being a second-rate painter.

W. Somerset Maugham

#47. If you want to know the value of a second, ask the person who just crossed the road at the wrong time and barely escaped being hit by a speeding car.

Sunday Adelaja

#48. If there's age discrimination - and there may be - I've always felt that the person who discriminates is hurt more than the person being discriminated against, if the second person shucks it off and moves forward.

Marv Levy

#49. I had prepared myself for the second half of my life [to be] filled with other passions that don't include being in front of the camera. And then all of a sudden I got more work and more work and more work. And I went, "Well maybe things have shifted." And I think they have.

Sandra Bullock

#50. Being educated means to prefer the best not only to the worst but to the second best.

William Lyon Phelps

#51. Middle-age should be shot. Things about it gall me. First, that those younger despise the thought of getting old, and, hence, me. Second, that those older despise the thought of me being younger, and, hence, me. So here I am, pressed from both sides, forced to wear blinders - FULL SPEED AHEAD!

Chila Woychik

#52. I not only couldn't read but often couldn't hear or understand what was being said to me - by the time I'd processed the beginning of a sentence, the teacher was well on her way through a second or third.

Philip Schultz

#53. And so I found myself in a kind of love lock: pining for the wrong person, grieving beside a woman whose body I can't touch, being given a second chance I can't find the clarity to take.

Courtney Maum

#54. I think sometimes soap acting gets an unfair label for being bad and over the top. The lessons I learned there were so valuable. Seeing yourself every day on television, you learned what worked and didn't work, what was bad acting and what wasn't. Memorizing scripts became second nature.

Dylan Bruce

#55. I'm a mom first. That's all I really care about - being a good mom and a good wife. The writing always comes second for me.

Amy Koppelman

#56. I think a certain kind of sexism is so matter-of-fact, and has been for so long, that young women feel less valuable or second-tier if their gender and attractiveness or sexual desirability are not being commented on in the workplace.

Cris Mazza

#57. The Second World War is and was constantly being drudged up by Blair and Bush to rationalize the invasion of Iraq.

Robert Fisk

#58. A man that is an heretic, after the first and second admonition, reject; knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself.

Irenaeus Of Lyons

#59. What was it Like?"
"What was what like?" he said, although he knew.
"Quick, I imagine. But you must have perceived something. A split second of vanishing awareness. A grasping at a shrinking light."
"It was like being fucked in the brain.

Max Barry

#60. In the United States 'First' and 'Second' class can't be painted on railroad cars, for all passengers, being Americans, are equal and it would be 'unAmerican.' But paint 'Pullman' on a car and everyone is satisfied.

Owen Wister

#61. Valentines Day is being marketed as a Date Movie. I think its more of a First-Date Movie. If your date likes it, do not date that person again. And if you like it, there may not be a second date.

Roger Ebert

#62. After five years in Ferrari, being second all the time, I think it was enough for me.

Fernando Alonso

#63. Being a hero to someone, even if it is a dog, is a feeling like no other. Though it can be frustrating, it can be the most rewarding thing to give someone a second chance at a happy life.

Elizabeth Parker

#64. My second album was written while I was on the road promoting the first record. I tried to take my personal experiences and elevate them to universal experiences, so that I wasn't writing songs about living on a tour bus or being on a TV set for the first time.

Kate Voegele

#65. My first book took five years to write and I made $1,000 on it. The second took three years and I made $3,000. All this time I was a housewife being supported by a husband. I was very lucky.

Judith Rossner

#66. I was the second-best player in high school. I was the second pick in the draft. I've been second in the MVP voting three times. I came in second in the Finals. I'm tired of being second. I'm not going to settle for that. I'm done with it.

Kevin Durant

#67. After they see me, when their mothers are feeding them all that cashmere sweater and girdle
[expletive deleted by the New York Times], maybe they'll have a second thought - that they can be themselves and win.

Janis Joplin

#68. The second song is called 'Easy As Life,' which really describes the complete conflict of the whole story, her struggle of being in love with the enemy and also being in love with her people.

Deborah Cox

#69. I did commit to myself that I would not jump back into being the workaholic that I can be before I gave myself an honest opportunity to create the marriage of my dreams and to create the beginning of the family of my dreams, and that took a hot second.

Alanis Morissette

#70. Any guy, even imaginary, would just feel like second best. Second best to what? I don't even have an image of the perfect boyfriend. I just know he must exist. Because I have all these feelings-love, longing, wanting to be touched, dreaming of being kissed-yet no one to focus them on.

Tabitha Suzuma