He had led off being a perfectionist when he discovered that not promptly kept appointments, not a house circumspectly clean. . . not anything cleared you through the terrifying office of chance; that it is chance and not perfection that rules the world.
Source: Ordinary People, Ch. 11, 1976.
-- Judith Guest, (Mar 29 1936-____), US novelist; She is best known for Ordinary People, 1976.