"There is a danger of changing too much in the search for perfection"
About this Quote
Coming from a performer whose career sits at the intersection of pop precision and human vulnerability, the line reads like a quiet rebuke to the machinery behind “flawless.” ABBA’s recordings are famously meticulous, yet the magic people return to isn’t just technical cleanliness - it’s the emotional signal inside the polish: the crack of longing, the ache under the hook. Faltskog’s phrasing is disarmingly plain, which is the point. It treats perfection not as an artistic ideal but as a process risk, something you can over-apply like too much compression on a vocal until it shines and says nothing.
The subtext is about identity: revise long enough and you can sand away the very quirks that make a voice recognizable, a lyric specific, a performance believable. “Danger” also hints at the psychological toll: perfectionism doesn’t merely refine; it escalates, turning craft into self-surveillance.
In a culture addicted to optimization - from autotuned vocals to filtered faces to endlessly “improved” personal brands - Faltskog’s sentence lands as a pop-era counterspell. Not anti-ambition, just pro-aliveness: keep the imperfections that prove a real person was here.
Quote Details
| Topic | Change |
|---|---|
| Source | Later attribution: the Ultimate Book of Quotations (Joseph Demakis, 2012) modern compilationISBN: 9781300095132 · ID: kOnjAwAAQBAJ
Evidence: ... There is a danger of changing too much in the search for perfection . Agnetha Faltskog In a progressive country change is constant ; change is inevitable . Benjamin Disraeli Computers ... Other candidates (1) An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (Chap. 2.31) (John Locke (Philosopher), 1689) primary60.0% Song: "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (Chap. 2.31)" by John Locke (Philosopher) |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Faltskog, Agnetha. (2026, February 28). There is a danger of changing too much in the search for perfection. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/there-is-a-danger-of-changing-too-much-in-the-163362/
Chicago Style
Faltskog, Agnetha. "There is a danger of changing too much in the search for perfection." FixQuotes. February 28, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/there-is-a-danger-of-changing-too-much-in-the-163362/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"There is a danger of changing too much in the search for perfection." FixQuotes, 28 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/there-is-a-danger-of-changing-too-much-in-the-163362/. Accessed 28 Feb. 2026.








