-did you think of her as your best friend?
-she was my only friend.
-your best and only.
-my one and only. if you have only one of something you can't say it's the best of anything.

Can the word ‘best’ mean anything at all, except to some particular person in some particular mood? Perhaps not — so if we allow the word to stand as an absolute, you, or you, or perhaps you, may be appalled at omissions or inclusions or, never having read me before, may even be impelled to cry out, ‘Good heavens, are those his best?’

Only two classes of books are of universal appeal: the very best and the very worst.

If we could be truly excellent at only one thing, what would it be?” ASK,

There are always many ways to accomplish anything, but only one of them is really best. Which of them is best—that is the source of all argument on the production of anything, the creator of factions among the designers, and the first enemy of speed and efficiency.

I just don't understand the need to name something "the best" or more better than something else. Saying one thing is better than another, one performance is better than another performance — there can't be a contest in this area. I don't understand that.

...each individual can only do one thing well. He can't do lots of things. If he tries, he will be jack of all trades, and master of none.

"How can a movie be "one of the best"? There's only one "best" movie, so saying something is "one of the best" is stupid and doesn't make sense. Technically any movie that's not the worst could be considered "one of the best." Imagine that, another empty phrase used by marketing people. I want to punch someone in the throat."

Sometimes the only choice is the lesser of two evils.

Between two evils, choose neither; between two goods, choose both.

Better the lesser of two oddities.

The difference between the first- and second-best things in art absolutely seems to escape verbal definition — it is a matter of a hair, a shade, an inward quiver of some kind — yet what miles away in the point of preciousness!

Be the best at what you do or the only one doing it.

Don’t be the best. Be the only.