mediocrity?

Let´s start to discuss the kind of topic that writers discuss in essays. Here are some quotes about mediocrity coming from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/mediocrity.html:

*All good is hard. All evil is easy. Dying, losing, cheating, and mediocrity is easy. Stay away from easy.

Scott Alexander

*In the republic of mediocrity, genius is dangerous.

Robert Green Ingersoll

*Jealousy is the tribute mediocrity pays to genius.

Fulton J. Sheen

*People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents.

Andrew Carnegie

*Malice is only another name for mediocrity.

Patrick Kavanagh

To understand the value of these ideas, it would probably be useful to find out about the authors. You can do so in the same website, where you will also find many other quotations about the same topic. My question is: what is mediocrity, in your opinion? Could you give your own definition, or examples of it? What do you think of mediocre people?