Gentlemen, we are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch it, because nothing is perfect. But we are going to relentlessly chase it, because in the process we will catch excellence. I am not remotely interested in just being good
Attributed toVince Lombardi1913–1970 · Green Bay Packers head coach
Widely and credibly credited to Lombardi’s first team meeting as Packers head coach in 1959, on the word of one eyewitness — quarterback Bart Starr. But nothing recorded in 1959 preserves it: the wording reaches print through Starr’s recollection in two books published in 2004, and the closing sentence circulates in more than one form.
“Gentlemen, we are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch it, because nothing is perfect. But we are going to relentlessly chase it, because in the process we will catch excellence. I am not remotely interested in just being good” attributed to Vince Lombardi, at his first Green Bay Packers team meeting, 1959, as recalled by quarterback Bart Starr; cited in Chuck Carlson, Game of My Life: 25 Stories of Packers Football (2004), p. 149. No contemporaneous 1959 record is known. Via Quotle.info
Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool
In context
Evoking the world of Vince Lombardi — NFL head coach · Pro Football Hall of Fame, Class of 1971. Theme: "Gentlemen, we are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch it, because nothing is perfect. But we are going to relentlessly chase it, because in the process we will catch excellence. I am not remotely interested in just being good". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Minimalist
Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "Gentlemen, we are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch it, because nothing is perfect. But we are going to relentlessly chase it, because in the process we will catch excellence. I am not remotely interested in just being good". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Provenance
The paper trail
Occasion
First team meeting as Green Bay Packers head coach, 1959
Cited to
Game of My Life: 25 Stories of Packers Football
Citation
Chuck Carlson (Sports Publishing, 2004), p. 149; also Scott & Barker, Legends of Alabama Football (2004), p. 78 — per Wikiquote
Eyewitness
Bart Starr, Packers quarterback — no contemporaneous 1959 record known
Gentlemen, we are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch it, because nothing is perfect. But we are going to relentlessly chase it, because in the process we will catch excellence. I am not remotely interested in just being good.
Recalled, not recorded
That is the wording in Wikiquote’s sourced section. Starr’s own telling, as recorded by Packer Report, runs slightly differently: “… knowing full well we will not catch it. Nothing is perfect but we are going to relentlessly — and he emphasized relentlessly — chase it because, in the process, we will catch excellence,” closing “I am not even remotely interested in being just good.”
Wikiquote’s sourced section ↗ carries this exact wording, dates it to Lombardi’s first team meeting as Packers coach in 1959, and cites Chuck Carlson, Game of My Life: 25 Stories of Packers Football (2004), p. 149 and Richard Scott & Jay Barker, Legends of Alabama Football (2004), p. 78.
Both of those citations run through one witness. Packer Report’s Tom Andrews recorded Bart Starr’s telling of the speech ↗, including the aside that Lombardi emphasised the word relentlessly — and a closing sentence worded differently from the one that circulates.
Lombardi’s official family site ↗ publishes only the compressed form, “Perfection is not attainable. But if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence.” — not the “Gentlemen” speech.
Quote Investigator’s Lombardi archive ↗ holds three investigations and none of them is this saying, so there is no specialist ruling to defer to — which is why this page stops at attributed.
Lombardi spoke these words, if he spoke them, in a closed 1959 team meeting that was never published at the time; the wording quoted here reaches print in books published in 2004, well inside copyright. Treat the passage as in-copyright rather than public domain, and note that the Lombardi family site ↗ asserts rights over Lombardi material through Luminary Group. Short quotation with attribution is ordinary fair use; reproducing the book passage is not.
Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.
Fact-check
What gets mangled
This one is not a fake — but almost nobody quotes it the way the sourced record has it, and Lombardi’s name attracts sayings that were never his.
✕
WordingThe compressed one-liner condensation
The version in near-universal circulation — “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence” — is a boiled-down form, not the remembered speech. Lombardi’s own family site ↗ publishes only that short version, without the “Gentlemen” opening or the closing sentence.
✕
WordingThe closing sentence variant
Wikiquote’s sourced entry ends “I am not remotely interested in just being good.” Packer Report’s Tom Andrews recorded Starr telling it as “I am not even remotely interested in being just good” — and noted that Lombardi emphasised the word relentlessly ↗.
✕
Attribution habitVince Lombardi generally magnet name
Lombardi is one of the internet’s great quote magnets. Quote Investigator ascribes his most famous line, “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing,” to Henry ‘Red’ Sanders in 1948 ↗ — so a Lombardi attribution deserves checking by default.
✓The thought and the occasion are almost certainly genuine — a named Hall of Fame eyewitness told this story consistently — but the words we quote are Bart Starr’s memory, reaching print in the 2004 books Wikiquote cites ↗, not a 1959 transcript.
Context
Why a locker-room line became a management slogan
Lombardi took over the Green Bay Packers on 2 February 1959, at forty-five, inheriting a franchise that had become a punchline. The line Bart Starr remembered from that first meeting is not a maxim about winning — it is a maxim about the gap between the target you aim at and the result you can actually hold. Chase something unreachable, Lombardi is said to have told the room, and what you end up holding is excellence.
That structure is exactly why the sentence escaped football. Stripped to its compressed form — the version Lombardi’s own family site publishes — it became one of the most reproduced sayings in corporate training decks, sports halls and classroom posters. The compression is also what makes it hard to verify: what circulates is not a transcript but a remembered speech, boiled down over decades of retelling.
Perfection is not attainable. But if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence.
Why the 2004 sourcing matters
A 1959 team meeting was a closed room. There were no cameras, no stenographer and no reason for a reporter to be present — so the absence of a contemporaneous record is not itself suspicious. What it does mean is that every published version of these words descends from recollection, and recollection drifts.
The drift is visible. Wikiquote’s sourced entry ends “I am not remotely interested in just being good.” Packer Report’s account of Starr telling the story ends “I am not even remotely interested in being just good,” and adds a stage direction — that Lombardi leaned on the word relentlessly. Neither is wrong; neither is a transcript.
Explore
Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
1913–1970 · NFL head coach · Pro Football Hall of Fame, Class of 1971
Born in Brooklyn on 11 June 1913, Lombardi was hired as head coach of the Green Bay Packers on 2 February 1959 and turned a losing franchise into the defining dynasty of 1960s professional football, going 9–1 in post-season play with an overall coaching record of 105–35–6. He left Green Bay after the 1967 season, stayed on as general manager in 1968, and returned to the sideline with Washington in 1969 before cancer killed him on 3 September 1970. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame with the Class of 1971, and his name is now attached to more motivational sayings than he can be shown to have originated.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Cite this
Vince Lombardi, remarks at his first Green Bay Packers team meeting, 1959, as recalled by Bart Starr; cited in Chuck Carlson, Game of My Life: 25 Stories of Packers Football (Sports Publishing, 2004), 149, and Richard Scott and Jay Barker, Legends of Alabama Football (2004), 78 — per Wikiquote ↗. No contemporaneous 1959 record is known.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Gentlemen, we are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch it, because nothing is perfect. But we are going to relentlessly chase it, because in the process we will catch excellence. I am not remotely interested in just being good’?” Last verified 25 Aug 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/gentlemen-we-are-going-to-relentlessly-chase-perfection/