The idea that Bill Gates has appeared like a knight in shining armour to lead all customers out of a mire of technological chaos neatly ignores the fact that it was he, by peddling second-rate technology, who led them into it in the first place. - Douglas Adams
Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of someone else. - Judy Garland
There is no democracy in physics. We can't say that some second-rate guy has as much right to opinion as Fermi. - Luis Walter Alvarez
The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking. - -A. A. Milne
It's a shame that we have to choose between two such second-rate countries as the USSR and the USA. - Jorge Luis Borges
To keep any great nation up to a high standard of civilization there must be enough superior characters to hold the balance of power, but the very moment the balance of power gets into the hands of second-rate men and women, a decline of that nation is inevitable. - Christian D. Larson
The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking."[War With Honour, 1940] - A.A. Milne