„Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.“

„I'd rather be a first-rate version of myself than a second-rate version of anybody.“

—  Liza Minnelli American actress and singer 1946

Liza Minelli, interviewed by Gene Shalit in the September 1977 issue of The Ladies Home Journal, as quoted in "Women in the News," https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=yXMjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=a2cEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5851%2C3647577 in The Sarasota Herald-Tribune (August 24, 1977), p. 6-D
Varianta: But I'd rather be a first-rate version of myself than a second-rate version of somebody else.
Kontext: I don't sing them because I couldn't sing them as well as she did. I'd rather be a first-rate version of myself than a second-rate version of anybody.

„I would rather present a first-rate version of myself than a second-rate version of Mama.“

—  Liza Minnelli American actress and singer 1946

Liza Minelli, as quoted in I Remember It Well (1975) by Vincente Minelli with Hector Arce, p. 395 https://books.google.com/books?id=D6jDtmiJCpkC&q=minelli+%22second-rate%22+%22first-rate+version%22&dq=minelli+%22second-rate%22+%22first-rate+version%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCoQ6AEwBGoVChMI0on3sqjdxgIVxHg-Ch1NhwVD; reprinted in "Judy and Liza, Part 3" https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=CfpjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=WuYDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7188%2C5401411 by Vincente Minelli, in The Sydney Herald (August 15, 1975), p. 8
Kontext: I couldn't sing Mama's special songs. I couldn't do them as well. I would rather present a first-rate version of myself than a second-rate version of Mama.

„Liza Minelli said she can't sing well enough those "special songs" of her late mother, Judy Garland, so she doesn't sing them at all. The award-winning entertainer said she'd "rather present a first-rate version of myself than a second-rate version of Mama."“

—  Liza Minnelli American actress and singer 1946

As paraphrased and quoted in "News Spotlight," https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=S8cxAAAAIBAJ&sjid=PIYDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6062%2C6382171 The Kingsport Daily News (December 11, 1974), p. 9

„First rate mathematicians choose first rate people, but second rate mathematicians choose third rate people.“

—  André Weil French mathematician 1906 - 1998

As quoted in Comic Sections (Dublin 1993) by D MacHale

„First-rate science fiction was, and remains, more interesting than second-rate art.“

—  Clive James Australian author, critic, broadcaster, poet, translator and memoirist 1939 - 2019

Ibid.
Essays and reviews, From the Land of Shadows (1982)

„The qualities of a second-rate writer can easily be defined, but a first-rate writer can only be experienced. It is just the thing in him which escapes analysis that makes him first-rate.“

—  Willa Cather American writer and novelist 1873 - 1947

Katherine Mansfield (1925)

„Everything is a version of something else.“

—  Patrick Marber, Closer

Zdroj: Closer

„One mark of a second-rate mind is to be always telling stories.“

—  Jean de La Bruyère, kniha Les Caractères

Aphorism 52
Les Caractères (1688), Des jugements

„André Weil suggested that there is a logarithmic law at work: first-rate people attract other first-rate people, but second-rate people tend to hire third-raters, and third-rate people hire fifth-raters. If a dean or a president is genuinely interested in building and maintaining a high-quality university (and some of them are), then he must not grant complete self-determination to a second-rate department; he must, instead, use his administrative powers to intervene and set things right. That's one of the proper functions of deans and presidents, and pity the poor university in which a large proportion of both the faculty and the administration are second-raters; it is doomed to diverge to minus infinity.“

—  Paul R. Halmos American mathematician 1916 - 2006

I Want to be a Mathematician: An Automathography (1985)

„You sing them better than anybody. I don't want to be a second-rate example of you. I want to be a first-rate example of myself.“

—  Liza Minnelli American actress and singer 1946

Liza Minelli, as quoted in "Liza Minelli 'Never Felt Better' Despite Tabloids' Whispers" https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=rmRGAAAAIBAJ&sjid=6ugMAAAAIBAJ&pg=3577%2C2269544 by Douglas J. Rowe, in TV Plus: The Schenectady Sunday Gazette Supplement (June 9, 1996), p. 4
Kontext: It really scared me to do what Mom did because I never did anything that she did. I promised her that I would never sing her songs, and I kept my promise. "You sing them better than anybody. I don't want to be a second-rate example of you. I want to be a first-rate example of myself."

„I wrote somewhere once that the third-rate mind was only happy when it was thinking with the majority, the second-rate mind was only happy when it was thinking with the minority, and the first-rate mind was only happy when it was thinking.“

—  A.A. Milne British author 1882 - 1956

War with Honour http://books.google.com/books?id=QmQDAAAAMAAJ&q="I+wrote+somewhere+once+that+the+third+rate+mind+was+only+happy+when+it+was+thinking+with+the+majority+the+second+rate+mind+was+only+happy+when+it+was+with+the+minority+and+a+first+rate+mind+was+only+happy+when+it+was+thinking", Macmillan War Pamphlets, Issue 2 (1940).

„The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first.“

—  Thomas Jefferson 3rd President of the United States of America 1743 - 1826

Not found in any of Thomas Jefferson's writings. This may be a conflation of Jefferson's "chains of the Constitution" comment with Ayn Rand's statement in her essay, Man's Rights: "There are two potential violators of man’s rights: the criminals and the government. The great achievement of the United States was to draw a distinction between these two — by forbidding to the second the legalized version of the activities of the first." http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/two-enemies-people-are-criminals-and-governmentquotation
Misattributed

„(J)ust because your version of normal isn't the same as someone else's version doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with you.“

—  John Boyne, kniha The Terrible Thing That Happened to Barnaby Brocket

Zdroj: The Terrible Thing That Happened to Barnaby Brocket

„I didn’t and don’t want to be a ‘feminine’ version or a diluted version or a special version or a subsidiary version or an ancillary version, or an adapted version of the heroes I admire. I want to be the heroes themselves.“

—  Joanna Russ, kniha The Female Man

Part 9, Chapter 4 (p. 206)
Zdroj: Fiction, The Female Man (1975)
Kontext: Remember: I didn’t and don’t want to be a “feminine” version or a diluted version or a special version or a subsidiary version or an ancillary version, or an adapted version of the heroes I admire. I want to be the heroes themselves.
What future is there for a female child who aspires to being Humphrey Bogart?

„I chucked the law for astronomy, and I knew that even if I were second-rate or third-rate, it was astronomy that mattered.“

—  Edwin Hubble American astronomer 1889 - 1953

as quoted by [N. Y. Mayall, Biographical memoir. Volume 41, Memoirs of the National Academy of sciences, National Academy of Sciences (U.S.), National Academy of Sciences, 1970, 179]
Attributed

„What's terrible is to pretend that the second-rate is the first-rate. To pretend that you don't need love when you do; or you like your work when you know quite well you're capable of better.“

—  Doris Lessing, kniha The Golden Notebook

Anna Wulf, in "Free Women: 2"<!-- 255 -->
Zdroj: The Golden Notebook (1962)
Kontext: It seems to me like this. It's not a terrible thing — I mean, it may be terrible, but it's not damaging, it's not poisoning, to do without something one really wants. It's not bad to say: My work is not what I really want, I'm capable of doing something bigger. Or I'm a person who needs love, and I'm doing without it. What's terrible is to pretend that the second-rate is the first-rate. To pretend that you don't need love when you do; or you like your work when you know quite well you're capable of better.

„First-rate men will not canvass mobs; and if they did, the mobs would not elect the first-rate men.“

—  Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury British politician 1830 - 1903

Zdroj: 'Democracy on its Trial', Quarterly Review, 110, 1861, p. 281

„Your critics are your bestfriends, they push you to become the best version of yourself.“

—  Cornelius Keagon

„No matter who you are, no matter what you did, no matter where you've come from, you can always change, become a better version of yourself.“

—  Madonna American singer, songwriter, and actress 1958