Quality Quotes

"Quality is everyone's responsibility." W. Edwards Deming

"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." Walt Disney

"When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful." Malala Yousafzai, Nobel laureate

That's what life is all about—timing." Lee Iacocca

"I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work." Thomas Edison

"The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today." Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." Confucius

"Always remember that striving and struggle precede success, even in the dictionary." Sarah Ban Breathnach, author

"My definition of 'innovative' is providing value to the customer." Mary T. Barra, CEO of General Motors

"Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things." Theodore Levitt

"You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf." Jon Kabat-Zinn

"Your mind is a powerful thing. When you fill it with positive thoughts, your life will start to change." Unknown

"Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash." U.S. General George S. Patton

"A wise man adapts himself to circumstances, as water shapes itself to the vessel that contains it." Chinese proverb

"It's not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?" Henry David Thoreau

"When patterns are broken, new worlds emerge." Tuli Kupferberg, poet and singer

"Opportunity and risk come in pairs." Bangambiki Habyarimana, author

"Treat the small as great and the few as many." Lao Tzu

"If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward." Martin Luther King Jr.

"Error is always in haste." Thomas Fuller

"If you don’t risk anything, you risk even more." Erica Jong, novelist

"The best way to predict the future is to create it." Peter Drucker

"There is no substitute for hard work." Thomas Edison

"Quality is free. It's not a gift, but it's free. The unquality things are what cost money." Philip Crosby

"The first step is to learn how to change." W. Edward Deming

"Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way." Booker T. Washington

"There is only one proof of ability: action." Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, writer

"Well begun is half done." Aristotle

"With the possible exception of the equator, everything begins somewhere." C.S. Lewis

"Don’t think money does everything or you are going to end up doing everything for money." Voltaire

"Note to salary setters: Pay your people the least possible and you’ll get from them the same." Malcolm Forbes

"A day’s pay for a day’s work is more than adequate when both the work and the pay are appreciated as much as they are expected." Cullen Hightower, writer

"Sure, sometimes guys pass you up in salary, and maybe it's a lesser player, but it's all based on what a team has as far as value in that person." Brett Favre

"When we do what we are meant to do, money comes to us, doors open for us, we feel useful, and the work we do feels like play to us." Julia Cameron, author

"A wise person should have money in their head, but not in their heart." Jonathan Swift

"Money is usually attracted, not pursued." Jim Rohn, entrepreneur and motivational speaker

"Don’t let money run your life; let money help you run your life better." John Rampton, founder of Due

"If you don’t value your time, neither will others. Stop giving away your time and talents. Value what you know and start charging for it." Kim Garst, co-founder of Boom! Social

"The art is not in making money, but in keeping it." Proverb

"A salary was not sufficient for me." P.T. Barnum

"Money is multiplied in practical value depending on the number of W’s you control in your life: what you do, when you do it, where you do it, and with whom you do it." Timothy Ferriss, author

"I've always been petrified of working for a boss who I didn't like, but who I was in fear of, because I wanted my salary." Simon Cowell

"The man who counts his hours and kicks about his salary is a self-elected failure." Charles M. Schwab

"Choose satisfaction over salary. Better to be happy with little than miserable with much." Max Lucado, author

"Obscene salaries send the wrong message through a company." James Sinegal, co-founder and former CEO of Costco Wholesale Corporation

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." Upton Sinclair

"Paying good wages is not charity at all—it is the best kind of business." Henry Ford

"Quality has to be caused, not controlled." Philip Crosby

"The result of long-term relationships is better and better quality, and lower and lower costs." W. Edwards Deming

"There is one rule for the industrialist and that is: make the best quality of goods possible, at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible." Henry Ford

"Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected." Steve Jobs

"Eventually everything connects—people, ideas, objects. The quality of the connections is the key to quality per se." Charles Eames, industrial designer

"The transformation to world-class quality is not possible without committed, visionary, hands-on leadership." Steven George

"Quality is conformance to requirements." Philip Crosby

"Quality needs to be constantly improved, but it is just as necessary to make sure that quality never deteriorates." Shigeru Mizuno, author

"Quality is everyone’s responsibility." W. Edwards Deming

"Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives." William A. Foster

"Quality is more important than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles." Steve Jobs

"It is quality rather than quantity that matters." Lucius Annaeus Seneca

"Quality is generally transparent when present, but easily recognized in its absence." Alan Gillies, author

"You can't fake quality any more than you can fake a good meal." William S. Burroughs

"Quality is to give the customers what they want." Sam Walton, founder of Walmart and Sam's Club

"Quality means doing it right when no one is looking." Henry Ford

"Do not compromise on the quality and your customers will not negotiate on the price." Amit Kalantri, author

"Quality is not an act, it is a habit." Aristotle

"When you're out of quality, you're out of business." Philip Crosby 

"Improvement begins with ‘I.’" Arnold H. Glasow, author

"The most effective way to do it is to do it." Amelia Earhart

"Practice the philosophy of continuous improvement: get a little bit better every single day." Brian Tracy, author and ‎motivational speaker

"Strive for continuous improvement instead of perfection." Kim Collins, athlete

"Invest a few moments in thinking; it will pay good interest." Unknown

"Practice isn't the thing you do once you're good. It's the thing you do that makes you good." Malcolm Gladwell

"There is no such thing as a perfect method. Methods always can be improved upon." Walter Daiber

"Everything can be improved." Clarence W. Barron, publisher and former president of Dow Jones & Company

"If a thing’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well." Chinese Proverb

"Operational excellence is when each and every employee can see the flow of value to the customer, and fix that flow before it breaks down." Kevin Duggan, author

"I can accept failure; everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying." Michael Jordan

"It is better to stir up a question without deciding it, than to decide it without stirring it up." Joseph Joubert, essayist

Wednesday, October 14: "One that desires to excel should endeavor in those things that are in themselves most excellent." Epictetus

"Everyone has the heart of a champion on game day. It’s the heart you have during the weeks, months, and years of preparation that actually makes a difference." John M. Raymond

"Process improvement programs are like teaching people how to fish. Strategy maps and scorecards teach people where to fish." Robert S. Kaplan, co-creator of the Balanced Scorecard

"Most improved things can be improved." Mokokoma Mokhonoana, author

"There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure." Colin Powell

"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere." Albert Einstein

"The essential question is not, ‘How busy are you?’ but ‘What are you busy at?’'" Oprah Winfrey

"You either get bitter or you get better. It’s that simple." Josh Shipp, author and motivational speaker

"Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection." Mark Twain

"Don’t waste time learning the ‘tricks of the trade.’ Instead, learn the trade." James Charlton, author

"If you can't describe what you are doing as a process, you don't know what you're doing." W. Edwards Deming

"Without standards, there can be no improvement." Taiichi Ohno

"The world we have created is a product of our thinking; it cannot be changed without changing our thinking." Albert Einstein

"Excellence in any department can be attained only by the labor of a lifetime; it is not to be purchased at a lesser price." Samuel Johnson, writer

"Excellence is not an act but a habit. The things you do the most are the things you will do best." Marva Collins, educator

"Excellence is not a skill; it is an attitude." Ralph Marston, American football player

"No man ever reached to excellence in any one art or profession without having passed through the slow and painful process of study and preparation." Horace

"If you don’t have time to do it right, you must have time to do it over." John Wooden, basketball player and coach

"Two-thirds of the Earth’s surface is covered with water. The other third is covered with auditors from headquarters." Norman Ralph Augustine

"Set high standards and few limitations for yourself." Anthony J. D'Angelo, author

"Fast is fine, but accuracy is everything." Wyatt Earp

"If you want to change your life you have to raise your standards." Tony Robbins, author and ‎motivational speaker

"If you think of standardization as the best that you know today, but which is to be improved tomorrow, you get somewhere." Henry Ford

"Don’t let perfect be the enemy of the good." Voltaire

"Great ideas need landing gear as well as wings." C.D. Jackson

"If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable." Lucius Annaeus Seneca

"If you don’t have time to do it right you must have time to do it over." Marian Wright Edelman, founder and former president of the Children's Defense Fund

"Standards should not be forced down from above but rather set by the production workers themselves." Taiichi Ohno, founder of the Toyota Production System

"If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else." Laurence J. Peter, management theorist

"Those who attain any excellence commonly spend life in one pursuit; for excellence is not often granted upon easier terms." Samuel Johnson, writer

"Most improved things can be improved." Mokokoma Mokhonoana, author

"Innovation is saying no to a thousand things." Steve Jobs

“Today’s ‘best practices’ lead to dead ends; the best paths are new and untried.” Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal

"It's not what the Vision is, it's what the Vision does." Peter Senge, founder of the Society for Organizational Learning

"The world we have created is a product of our thinking; it cannot be changed without changing our thinking." Albert Einstein

"Two basic rules of life are: 1) Change is inevitable. 2) Everybody resists change." W. Edwards Deming

"Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough." Elon Musk

"One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out." Jeff Bezos

"Different isn’t always better, but better is always different." Art Weinstein, author

"A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be." Wayne Gretzky

"Improvement usually means doing something that we have never done before." Shigeo Shingo

"I believe greatness is an evolutionary process that changes and evolves era to era." Michael Jordan

"We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." Albert Einstein

"The best way to predict the future is to invent it." Alan Kay, computer scientist

"All progress occurs because people dare to be different." Henry Miller

"You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over." Sir Richard Branson

"It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory." W. Edwards Deming

"Copying your competitor won't help you beat your competitor. You need to think beyond your competitor." Gerhard Plenert and Bill Kirchmier, authors

"The rate at which organizations learn may soon become the only sustainable source of competitive advantage." Peter Senge, founder of the Society for Organizational Learning

"You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new." Steve Jobs

"If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary." Jim Rohn, entrepreneur and motivational speaker

"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." Charles Darwin

"Run your business as if it’s in trouble because if you don’t, it will be some day." Jack Miles, author

"Optimize process and improvement follows." Syed Sha, Facilities Management Specialist - Operations & QHSE at MAB

"Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change." Stephen Hawking

"The officer who doesn’t know his communications and supply as well as his tactics is totally useless." U.S. General George S. Patton

"Sometimes no problem is a sign of a different problem." Mark Rosenthal, author

"Many of our best opportunities were created out of necessity." Sam Walton, founder of Walmart and Sam's Club

"Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other." Walter Elliot

"Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning." Sir Winston Churchill

"Watch the little things; a small leak will sink a great ship." Benjamin Franklin

"When solving problems, dig at the roots instead of just hacking at the leaves." Anthony J. D’Angelo, author

"When you're in a hole, stop digging." Denis Healey, former Chancellor of the Exchequer

"Planning is everything; the plan is nothing." Dwight D. Eisenhower

"What gets measured gets improved." Peter Drucker, educator and business management thinker

"There are many experts on how things have been done up to now. If you think something could use a little improvement, you are the expert." Robert Brault, author

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result." Albert Einstein

"A bad system will beat a good person every time." W. Edwards Deming

"A goal without a plan is just a wish." Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, writer

"Commitment without understanding is a liability." Oliver Wight, pioneer of Integrated Business Planning

"Speed is everything. It is the indispensable ingredient to competitiveness." Jack Welch

"Action is the foundational key to all success." Pablo Picasso

"Plans are nothing, planning is everything." Philip Kotler, author

"Supply chain is like nature; it is all around us." Dave Waters

"There is no exercise better for the improvement of our world than reaching down on a daily basis to lift someone up." Melchor Lim

"The thing I have learned at IBM is that culture is everything." Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., former CEO of IBM

"If you want employees to feel appreciated, you need to celebrate their achievements regularly and publicly." Logan Green, co-founder and CEO of Lyft

"Satisfied employees mean satisfied customers, which leads to profitability." Anne M. Mulcahy, former CEO of Xerox Corporation

"It’s about getting the best people, retaining them, nurturing a creative environment, and helping to find a way to innovate." Marissa Mayer, former president and CEO of Yahoo!

"Our secret weapon for building the best culture is open and honest feedback." Gina Lau, HR executive at HelloSign

"It’s important for us to create a culture of innovation—one that both values and rewards risk." Barbara Landes, former CFO and SVP of PBS

"There is virtue in work and there is virtue in rest. Use both and overlook neither." Alan Cohen, author

"Hire great people and give them freedom to be awesome." Andrew Mason, founder and former CEO of Groupon

"Being a great place to work is the difference between being a good company and a great company." Brian Kristofek, president and CEO of Upshot

"Shaping your culture is more than half done when you hire your team." Jessica Herrin, founder and CEO of Stella & Dot

"It is an immutable law in business that words are words, explanations are explanations, promises are promises, but only performance is reality." Harold Geneen, former president of ITT Corporation

"Culture is to recruiting as product is to marketing." Brian Halligan, co-founder and CEO of HubSpot

"Change before you have to." Jack Welch

"All organizations are perfectly aligned to get the results they get." Arthur W. Jones, organizational design expert

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." Aristotle

"Excellent firms don't believe in excellence – only in constant improvement and constant change." Tom Peters, business management writer

"If we magnified our successes as much as we magnified our disappointments, we’d all be much happier." Abraham Lincoln

"Customers will never love a company until the employees love it first." Simon Sinek, author

"Culture is simply a shared way of doing something with a passion." Brian Chesky, co-founder and CEO of ‎Airbnb

"Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success." Henry Ford

"Strength lies in differences, not in similarities." Stephen R. Covey, author and educator

"Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning." Benjamin Franklin

"Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better." Maya Angelou

"Give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others." Christian D. Larson, author

“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” John F. Kennedy

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." Thomas Edison

"If there is such a thing as good leadership, it is to give a good example." Ingvar Kamprad, founder of IKEA

"Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there." Stevie Wonder

"Find your voice and inspire others to find theirs." Stephen R. Covey, author and educator 

"Leadership is not a position or a title, it is action and example." Brian Tracy, author and ‎motivational speaker

"An organization's ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage." Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric

"Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things." Peter Drucker, educator and business management thinker

"In a high-IQ job pool, soft skills like discipline, drive, and empathy mark those who emerge as outstanding." Daniel Goleman, author

"There are good leaders who actively guide and bad leaders who actively misguide. Hence, leadership is about persuasion, presentation, and people skills." Shiv Khera, author and motivational speaker

"If anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semi-good, we did it. If anything goes really good, then you did it." Bear Bryant, American football player and coach 

"I’m not the smartest fellow in the world, but I sure can pick smart colleagues." Franklin D. Roosevelt

"One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation." Arthur Ashe

"It's a simple fact: no individual can be good at everything. Everyone needs people around them who have complementary sets of skills." Naveen Jain, founder and former CEO of InfoSpace

"The ABCs are attitude, behavior, and communication skills." Gerald Chertavian, founder and CEO of Year Up

"Intelligence, knowledge, or experience are important and might get you a job, but strong communication skills are what will get you promoted." Mireille Guiliano, author

"I am unable to point to a single instance in which stunning results were gotten without the active and personal leadership of the upper managers." Joseph M. Juran

"Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in." Bill Bradley, former U.S. Senator

"It does not matter where you are coming from. All that matters is where you are going." Brian Tracy, author and ‎motivational speaker

"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life." Confucius

"We cannot become what we want to be by remaining where we are." Max DePree, businessman and writer

"The best lesson I learned was to just do it." Sir Richard Branson

"One half of knowing what you want is knowing what you must give up before you get it." John C. Maxwell, author

"When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it." Henry Ford

"For true success ask yourself these four questions: Why? Why not? Why not me? Why not now?" James Allen, writer

"You must have long-range goals to keep you from being frustrated by short-range failures." Charles C. Noble, Major General and engineer

"One person’s ceiling is another person’s floor." Denis Waitley, motivational speaker

"Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good." Malcolm Gladwell

"Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there." Will Rogers, actor and columnist

"You must do the things you think you cannot do." Eleanor Roosevelt

"The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it." Michelangelo

"Action may not always bring success, but there is no success without action." Benjamin Disraeli, former British Prime Minister

"Nothing is impossible; the word itself says 'I’m possible.'" Audrey Hepburn

"If you always do what you always did, you'll always get what you always got." Henry Ford

"Your life changes the moment you make a new, congruent, and committed decision." Tony Robbins, author and ‎motivational speaker

"The greater the difficulty the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests." Epictetus

"Don’t follow the path. Blaze the trail." Jordan Belfort, author

"It’s better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one, than to have an opportunity and not be prepared." Whitney M. Young Jr., American civil rights leader

"Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can." Arthur Ashe

"Teamwork makes the dream work." John C. Maxwell, author

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead, cultural anthropologist

"Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships." Michael Jordan

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." Mahatma Gandhi

"Few, if any, forces in human affairs are as powerful as a shared vision." Peter Senge, founder of the Society for Organizational Learning

"Sticks in a bundle are unbreakable." Kenyan Proverb

"In teamwork, silence isn’t golden, it’s deadly." Mark Sanborn, author

"The nicest thing about teamwork is that you always have others on your side." Margaret Carty, author

"You do not lead by hitting people over the head—that’s assault, not leadership." Dwight D. Eisenhower

"A leader can’t lead ‘til he knows where he’s going." John Locke

"None of us is as smart as all of us." Ken Blanchard, author

"Everyone has an invisible sign hanging from their neck saying, 'Make me feel important.' Never forget this message when working with people." Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics

"You can disagree without being disagreeable." U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

"Managers who master the hammer and expect all problems to behave like nails find organizational life confusing and frustrating." Lee Bolman and Terrence Deal, authors

"Everyone on the team plays an equal role. My role is to create the wave and everyone on our team keeps the wave going." William Wang, founder and CEO of VIZIO

"Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity." U.S. General George S. Patton

"Trust is knowing that when a team member does push you, they’re doing it because they care about the team." Patrick Lencioni, author

"Good is the enemy of great. That's why so few things become great." James C. Collins, author and consultant 

"Only three things happen naturally in organizations: friction, confusion, and underperformance. Everything else requires leadership." Peter Drucker, educator and business management thinker

"I believe the leader’s ultimate job is to spread hope." Bob Galvin, former CEO of Motorola

"Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean." Ryūnosuke Satoro, writer

"You have a meeting to make a decision, not to decide on the question." Bill Gates

"It is more than probable that the average man could, with no injury to his health, increase his efficiency fifty percent." Sir Walter Scott

"Lean is about constant ticking, not occasional kicking." Alex Miller, management professor

"Waste is worse than loss." Thomas Edison

"Waste is a tax on the whole people." Albert W. Atwood, author

"Time waste differs from material waste in that there can be no salvage." Henry Ford

"Willful waste brings woeful want." Thomas Fuller

"Everything can be improved." Clarence W. Barron, publisher and former president of Dow Jones & Company

"However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results." Sir Winston Churchill

"If you define the problem correctly, you almost have the solution." Steve Jobs

"There is only one boss: the customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else." Sam Walton, founder of Walmart and Sam's Club

"Don’t water your weeds." Harvey Mackay, author and businessman

"Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler." Albert Einstein

"It is vain to do more what can be done with less." William of Ockham, philosopher

"Perfection is not attainable. But if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence." Vince Lombardi

"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together." Vincent Van Gogh

"Nature does constant value stream mapping—it’s called evolution." Carrie Latet, poet

"There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all." Peter Drucker, educator and business management thinker

"The most important thing about doing kaizen is to do kaizen when times are good, the economy is strong, and the company is profitable." Taiichi Ohno, founder of the Toyota Production System

"Chaos is the enemy of any organization the strives to be outstanding." Karen Martin, author

"The most dangerous kind of waste is the waste we don't recognize." Shigeo Shingo

"Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself." Eleanor Roosevelt

"Plans are nothing. Planning is everything." Dwight D. Eisenhower

"Quality means doing it right when no one is looking." Henry Ford

"Change begins at the top." John Hradesky, author

"Not everything that counts can be counted; not everything that can be counted counts." Albert Einstein

"Leadership is not rank, privileges, titles, or money; it is responsibility." Peter F. Drucker, educator and business management thinker

"The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity; without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office." Dwight D. Eisenhower

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." Winston Churchill

"The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand." Vince Lombardi

"The time is always right to do what is right." Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

"Our lives are defined by opportunities, even the ones we miss." F. Scott Fitzgerald

"We have no future because our present is too volatile. We have only risk management." William Gibson, author

"Don’t let money run your life, let money help you run your life better." John Rampton, entrepreneur

"If you have people invested emotionally in the success of their team, that usually translates to strong attendance." Kelley O’Hara, FIFA World Cup champion

"People are the common denominator of progress. No improvement is possible with unimproved people." John Kenneth Galbraith, economist

"If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time." Steve Jobs

"Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune." Jim Rohn, motivational speaker

"That's what life is all about—timing." Lee Iacocca

"Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning." Bill Gates

"If you risk nothing, then you risk everything." Geena Davis, actress

"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." Walt Disney

"It’s not enough to do your best. You must first know what to do, and then do your best." W. Edwards Deming

"If you hire good people, give them good jobs, and pay them good wages, generally something good is going to happen." James Sinegal, co-founder of Costco Wholesale Corporation

"Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that." Norman Vincent Peale, author

"Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver." Ayn Rand, writer

"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." Benjamin Franklin

"A wise person should have money in their head, but not in their heart." Jonathan Swift, author

"How do leaders serve their people? They pay good wages and treat employees with respect." John C. Maxwell, author

"I don’t pay good wages because I have a lot of money; I have a lot of money because I pay good wages." Robert Bosch, founder of Bosch

"Make the best quality of goods possible at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible." Henry Ford

"Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate." John F. Kennedy

"Note to salary setters: Pay your people the least possible and you’ll get from them the same." Malcolm Forbes

"Salary negotiations shouldn't be limited to just salary. Salary pays your mortgage, but terms build your career." Christopher Voss, author

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." Upton Sinclair

"If management thinks people don't care, it's likely that people won't care." F. James McDonald, former president and COO of General Motors

"The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves." Ray Kroc, business magnate

"While building up others, you will build up yourself." James E. Casey, American Messenger Company founder

"Success is not a function of the size of your title but of the richness of your contribution." Robin S. Sharma, author and leadership expert

"It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages." Henry Ford

"You'll always miss 100% of the shots you don't take." Wayne Gretzky

"Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash." U.S. General George S. Patton

"Nothing will ever be attempted, if all possible objections must be first overcome." Samuel Johnson, writer

"Test fast, fail fast, adjust fast." Tom Peters, business management writer

"Don't be afraid to take a big step. You can't cross a chasm in two small jumps." David Lloyd George, former British Prime Minister

"Playing it safe is the riskiest choice we can ever make." Sarah Ban Breathnach, author and public speaker

"A good rule of thumb is to assume that 'everything matters.'" Richard Thaler, economist

"Anticipate the difficult by managing the easy." Lao Tzu

"Plans based on average assumptions are wrong on average." Sam L. Savage, author and professor

"Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted." Albert Einstein

"When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging." Will Rogers, actor and humorist

"Opportunity and risk come in pairs." Bangambiki Habyarimana, author

"Do as little as needed, not as much as possible." Henk Kraaijenhof, renowned sprint coach

"Go out on a limb. That's where the fruit is." Jimmy Carter, 39th U.S. President

"Sense and deal with problems in their smallest state, before they grow bigger and become fatal." Pearl Zhu, author

"If you don’t make mistakes, you’re not working on hard enough problems. And that’s a big mistake." Frank Wilczek, Nobel laureate

"To be alive at all involves some risk." Harold Macmillan, former British Prime Minister

"Being able to be repeated controllably is one key element in risk management." Toba Beta, author

"Success is more a function of consistent common sense than it is of genius." An Wang, co-founder of Wang Laboratories 

"Your success in life isn't based on your ability to simply change. It is based on your ability to change faster than your competition, customers, and business." Mark Sanborn, motivational speaker

“Change before you have to.” Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric

“When patterns are broken, new worlds emerge.” Tuli Kupferberg, poet and singer

“I cannot say whether things will get better if we change; what I can say is they must change if they are to get better.” Georg C. Lichtenberg, physicist 

“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” John F. Kennedy

"By changing nothing, nothing changes.” Tony Robbins, author and ‎motivational speaker

“The culture is what creates the foundation for all future innovation. If you break the culture, you break the machine that creates your products.” Brian Chesky, ‎ co-founder and CEO of ‎Airbnb

"Innovation comes from the producer, not the customer.” W. Edwards Deming

“Adaptability and constant innovation are key to the survival of any company operating in a competitive market.” Shiv Nadar, billionaire industrialist 

“Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change.” Jim Rohn, motivational speaker 

“Collaboration and augmentation are the foundational principles of innovation.” Vaclav Smil, scientist and author

“Do you know what my favorite renewable fuel is? An ecosystem for innovation.” Thomas Friedman, three-time Pulitzer Prize winner

“Innovation is taking two things that already exist and putting them together in a new way.” Tom Freston, former CEO of Viacom Inc

“Eventually everything connects—people, ideas, objects. The quality of the connections is the key to quality per se.” Charles Eames, industrial designer
 
“Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.” Henry Ford

"If you set your goals ridiculously high and it’s a failure, you will fail above everyone else’s success.” James Cameron, filmmaker 

"Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.” Steve Jobs

“Quality is not an act; it is a habit.” Aristotle 

“The toughest thing about success is that you’ve got to keep on being a success.” Irving Berlin, composer 
 
“The success of a production depends on the attention paid to detail.” David O. Selznick, film producer 

“The culture of a workplace—an organization’s values, norms and practices—has a huge impact on our happiness and success.” Adam Grant, author and psychologist

“If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.” Henry Ford

“Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow.” William G. Pollard, nuclear physicist and scholar

"Growth and comfort do not coexist.” Ginni Rometty, CEO of IBM

"It’s important to be willing to make mistakes. The worst thing that can happen is you become memorable.” Sara Blakely, Spanx Inc. Founder  

"We think, mistakenly, that success is the result of the amount of time we put in at work, instead of the quality of time we put in.” Arianna Huffington

"So often people are working hard at the wrong thing. Working on the right thing is probably more important than working hard.” Caterina Fake, Flickr Co-founder

"My definition of ‘innovative’ is providing value to the customer.” Mary T. Barra, CEO of General Motors

"It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.” Eleanor Roosevelt

"Diversity is critical to innovation." Julie Sweet, CEO of Accenture

"Innovation is the calling card of the future." Anna Eshoo, U.S. Congresswoman

"Do what you love and success will follow. Passion is the fuel behind a successful career." Meg Whitman, former CEO and President of HP

"If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one." Dolly Parton, singer-songwriter

"You will be defined not just by what you achieve, but by how you survive." Sheryl Sandberg

"Without an open-minded mind, you can never be a great success." Martha Stewart

"Fortune befriends the bold." Emily Dickinson

"Always remember that striving and struggle precede success, even in the dictionary." Sarah Ban Breathnach, author

"There is simply no substitute for hard work when it comes to achieving success." Heather Bresch, CEO of Mylan

"Success isn’t about the end result, it’s about what you learn along the way." Vera Wang

"Your value will be not what you know; it will be what you share." Ginni Rometty, chair, president, and CEO of IBM

"Honesty is the cornerstone of all success, without which confidence and ability to perform shall cease to exist." Mary Kay Ash, Mary Kay Cosmetics founder

"Do one thing every day that scares you." Mary Schmich, journalist

"Find something you’re passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it." Julia Child

"I knew that if I failed I wouldn’t regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not trying." Jeff Bezos

"The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today." Franklin D. Roosevelt

"If plan A fails, remember there are 25 more letters." Chris Guillebeau, nonfiction author

"What is the purpose of being human and alive without doing new things?" Sir John Sulston

"Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great." John D. Rockefeller

"What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?" Vincent van Gogh

"The hallmark of successful people is that they are always stretching themselves to learn new things." Dr. Carol S. Dweck, motivation psychologist

"You never know what you can do until you try, and very few try unless they have to." C.S. Lewis

"Don't let the fear of losing be greater than the excitement of winning." Robert Kiyosaki

"We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." Walt Disney

"Believe you can and you’re halfway there." Theodore Roosevelt

"Don’t worry about failure; you only have to be right once." Drew Houston, CEO of Dropbox

"If your ship doesn’t come in, swim out to it." Jonathan Winters

"Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success." Dale Carnegie

"I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work." Thomas Edison

"Progress always involves risks. You can't steal second base and keep your foot on first." Frederick B. Wilcox

"Creativity is, after all, lauded as the engine of business innovation." Matthew Walker, author and scientist

"The history of innovation is the story of ideas that seemed dumb at the time." Andy Dunn, CEO of Bonobos

"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower." Steve Jobs

"Success is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well." Jim Rohn, motivational speaker

"If you just work on stuff that you like and you’re passionate about, you don’t have to have a master plan with how things will play out." Mark Zuckerberg

"Failure is success if we learn from it." Malcolm Forbes

"Networking has been cited as the number one unwritten rule of success in business. Who you know really impacts what you know." Sallie Krawcheck, CEO and co-founder of Ellevest

"Before anything else, preparation is the key to success." Alexander Graham Bell

"One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation." Arthur Ashe, American tennis player

"Success is where preparation and opportunity meet." Bobby Unser, former American automobile racer

"Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure." Confucius

"Timing, perseverance, and ten years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success." Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter

"Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others." Jack Welch, former chairman and CEO of General Electric

"Failures—repeated failures—are fingerposts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success." C. S. Lewis

"Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another." Napoleon Hill, American self-help author

"The foundation stones for a balanced success are honesty, character, integrity, faith, love and loyalty." Zig Ziglar, American author and speaker

"Your positive action combined with positive thinking results in success." Shiv Khera, Indian author and motivational speaker

"If you can push through that feeling of being scared, that feeling of taking a risk, really amazing things can happen." Marissa Mayer, former president and CEO of Yahoo!

"Some people dream of success, while other people get up every morning and make it happen." Wayne Huizenga

"I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward." Thomas Edison

"For success, attitude is equally as important as ability." Sir Walter Scott

"The path from dreams to success does exist. May you have the vision to find it, the courage to get on to it, and the perseverance to follow it." Dr. Kalpana Chawla, NASA Aerospace Engineer

"Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself—do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it." Bruce Lee

"Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning." Benjamin Franklin

"99% of failures come from people who make excuses." George Washington

"In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people, product, and profits." Lee Iacocca

"There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure." Colin Powell

"Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success." Henry Ford

"Failure is the seed of success." Kaoru Ishikawa

"Don't let anyone rob you of your imagination, your creativity, or your curiosity. It's your place in the world; it's your life.” Dr. Mae Jemison, engineer, physician, and NASA astronaut

"That's what life is all about—timing." Lee Iacocca

"The wisest of the wise may err." Aeschylus

"It is the true nature of mankind to learn from mistakes, not from example." Sir Fred Hoyle, astronomer

"Your mind is a powerful thing. When you fill it with positive thoughts, your life will start to change." Unknown

"We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained." Marie Curie

"'Restore connection' is not just for devices, it is for people too. If we cannot disconnect, we cannot lead." Arianna Huffington

"Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears." Les Brown, motivational speaker and author

"Be first and be lonely." Ginni Rometty, chair, president, and CEO of IBM

"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." Walt Disney

"It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up." Vince Lombardi

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." Anne Frank

"Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning." Bill Gates

"There is no substitute for knowledge." W. Edwards Deming

"Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear." George Addair

"Change your life today. Don’t gamble on the future, act now, without delay." Simone de Beauvoir, writer and social theorist

"Buckle up, and know that it’s going to be a tremendous amount of work, but embrace it." Tory Burch

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." Confucius

"Champions keep playing until they get it right." Billie Jean King

"When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful." Malala Yousafzai, Nobel Prize laureate

"Leadership is a series of behaviors rather than a role for heroes." Margaret Wheatley, writer

"I decided I can't pay a person to rewind time, so I may as well get over it." Serena Williams

"I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear." Rosa Parks

"Run to the fire; don’t hide from it." Meg Whitman, former CEO and President, HP

"Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen." Brené Brown

"Drama is very important in life: You have to come on with a bang. You never want to go out with a whimper." Julia Child

"The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them." Ida B. Wells

"Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputations can never effect a reform." Susan B. Anthony

"One good head is better than a hundred strong hands." Thomas Fuller

"Everyone shines, given the right lighting." Susan Cain

"Always aim high, work hard, and care deeply about what you believe in. And, when you stumble, keep faith. And, when you're knocked down, get right back up and never listen to anyone who says you can't or shouldn't go on." Hillary Clinton

"Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement." Helen Keller

"Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason so few engage in it." Henry Ford

"Small improvements are believable and therefore achievable." Anthony Robbins

"Nature does not make jumps." Carl Linnaeus

"The job of management is not supervision, but leadership." W. Edwards Deming

"Quality leaders do not work longer hours. They do different things during the hours that they do work." Juran Institute, Inc.

"Man will err while yet he strives." Goethe

"You must learn to be still in the midst of activity and to be vibrantly alive in repose." Indira Gandhi, first female prime minister of India 

"People do not just buy things, they also buy expectations." Albrecht and Zemke

"The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining." John F. Kennedy

"The voice of the customer guides world-class leaders' every action and decision." Chang, Labovitz, and Rosansky

"Good companies tell you how they collect employee suggestions. Great companies tell you how they use them." Harvard Business Review

“I wouldn’t ask anyone to do anything I wouldn’t do myself.” Indra Nooyi, CEO, PepsiCo

"You cannot manipulate people into doing quality work." Townsend and Gebhardt

"Great works are performed not by strength, but my perseverance." Samuel Johnson

"Patience is the companion of wisdom." St. Augustine

"There are no gains without pains." Adlai Stevenson

"Wisely and slowly; they stumble that run fast." William Shakespeare

"The man who does not get a certain satisfaction out of his day's work is losing the best part of his pay." Ford and Crowther

"Satisfied employees create satisfied customers." Capezio and Morehouse

"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." Carl Sagan

"Whatever humans have learned had to be learned as a consequence only of trial-and-error experience. Humans have learned only through mistakes." Buckminster Fuller

"By asking for the impossible we obtain the best possible." Italian Proverb

"The first problem for all of us…is not to learn, but to unlearn. We are filled with the popular wisdom of several centuries just past, and we are terrified to give it up." Gloria Steinem

"Theory is a window into the world." W. Edwards Deming

"Quality is the target. Education gives people the tools with which to take aim." Ernst & Young

"I did not have the most experience in the industry or the most money, but I cared the most." Sara Blakely, CEO

"Success is never owned, it is rented, and the rent is due every day." Rory Vaden

"It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default" J. K. Rowling, British novelist

"Problems are only opportunities in work clothes." Henry J. Kaiser

"Continuous effort — not strength or intelligence — is the key to unlocking and using our potential." Liane Cordes

“Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.” Gloria Steinem

"You've got to be willing to fail." James Burke, Johnson & Johnson

"If it's a good idea, go ahead and do it. It's much easier to apologize than to get permission." Grace Hopper, US Naval Admiral

"The future struggles against being mastered." Latin Proverb

“Change is inevitable to a progressive society. Change is constant." Benjamin Disraeli

“What separates finishers from quitters in any aspect of life is that finishers know how to silence the mind when it kicks up those demons of doubt.” John Joseph, Musician, Author, and Ironman Triathlete

"One good head is better than a hundred strong hands." Thomas Fuller

"Marvels are many, but man is the greatest." Sophocles

"Those who see teams as a replacement for hierarchy are missing the true potential of teams." Katzenbach and Smith

"No matter how senior you get in an organization, no matter how well you’re perceived to be doing, your job is never done." Abigail Johnson, President and CEO, Fidelity Investments

"The way you tell your story to yourself matters." Amy Cuddy, Harvard Business School Researcher and Author

“Each moment has the potential to be special and memorable.” Steven Redhead

"If you have an idea, you have to believe in yourself or no one else will." Sarah Michelle Gellar

“Luck is the residue of design.” Branch Rickey

"I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took an excuse." Florence Nightingale

"The mere fact of being able to call your job your passion is success in my eyes." Alicia Vikander

“Take the chair and sit at the forefront of your dreams. You are the chairperson at the center of affairs. Make it memorable; make an impact! Leave a legacy!” Israelmore Ayivor

“One cannot make a memorable catch without reaching out to catch the ball.” Jeffrey G. Duarte

“What makes your brand stick and tick is your ability to make it memorable” Bernard Kelvin Clive

"Differences can be a strength rather than a handicap." Condoleezza Rice

“In every day, there are 1,440 minutes. That means we have 1,440 daily opportunities to make a positive impact.” Les Brown

"Continuous effort — not strength or intelligence — is the key to unlocking and using our potential." Liane Cordes

“The great thing in this world is not so much where you stand, as in what direction you are moving.” Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Every moment wasted looking back keeps us from moving forward." Hillary Clinton

“You have to be willing to act. You have to be willing to crash and burn, to fail, or you won’t get very far.” Steve Jobs

"I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear. Knowing what must be done does away with fear." Rosa Parks

"It is not the mountains we conquer, but ourselves." Edmund Hillary

“I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” Jimmy Dean

"If you get, give. If you learn, teach." Maya Angelou

“It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.” Bill Gates

"A champion is afraid of losing. Everyone else is afraid of winning." Billie Jean King

“To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.” Eleanor Roosevelt

"I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship." Louisa May Alcott

"Every strike brings me closer to the next home run." Babe Ruth

“Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.” Elon Musk

"Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected." Steve Jobs

"Quality is free. It's not a gift, but it's free. The unquality things are what cost money." Philip Crosby

"The guiding principle should be make no small plans!" Joseph Juran

"The first concern of the company is the happiness of the people connected with it. If the people do not feel happy…that company does not deserve to exist." Kaoru Ishikawa

"The first step is to learn how to change." W. Edward Deming

"Train minds as tools that can be used for a lifetime, inquiring minds, curious minds, seeking, constantly refueling their ideas and information." Eleanor Roosevelt

"Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision without action can change the world!" Joel Barker

"As is the case in everything we do, unknown or chance causes extert their influence." Walter A. Shewhart

"The ultimate measure of a person is not where they stand in moments of comfort and convenience but where they stand at times of challenge and controversy." Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Make voyages! Attempt them! There is nothing else." Tennessee Williams, Camino Real

"Vision is the art of seeing things invisible." Jonathan Swift

"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way." Booker T. Washington

"The end result of a service is a feeling." Karl Albrecht

"There are no shortcuts for any place worth going." Beverly Sills

"A little alarm now and then keeps life from stagnation." Fanny Burney

"Those who begin many things finish but a few." Proverb

"Curiosity is one of those insatiable passions that grow by gratification." Sarah Scott

"The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice." George Eliot

"No one wants to learn by mistakes, but we cannot learn enough from successes to go beyond state of the art." Henry Petroski, civil engineer

"Self-trust, we know, is the first secret of success." Lady Wilde

“Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are.” Squire Bill Widener

"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." Ralph Waldo Emerson

"There is only one proof of ability: action." Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

"Slow and steady wins the race." Aesop

"Few things are impossible to diligence and skill…Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance." Samuel Johnson

"Well begun is half done." Aristotle

"Inspiration usually comes during work, rather than before it." Madeleine L'Engle
"Leaders who don't listen will eventually be surrounded by people who have nothing to say." Andy Stanley

"Men in the game are blind to what men looking on see clearly." Chinese proverb

"Every wall is a door." Ralph Waldo Emerson

"There is no shame in not knowing. The shame lies in not finding out." Russian proverb

"You can complain because roses have thorns, or you can rejoice because thorns have roses." Zig Ziglar

"Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t going away." Elvis Presley

"Let your net always be cast, and in the pool which you least expect, there will be a fish." Ovid

"It doesn’t work to leap a twenty-foot chasm in two ten-foot jumps." American proverb

"Fear is the mind-killer." Frank Herbert

"Failure does not mean 'defeat'; it simply means 'delay'." Anonymous

"To succeed in life you need two things: ignorance and confidence." Mark Twain

"We cannot teach people anything; we can only help them discover it within themselves." Galileo Galilei

"It is our imagination that transforms itself into reality." Helen Araromi

"Failure is nature’s plan to prepare you for greater responsibilities." Napoleon Hill

"With the possible exception of the equator, everything begins somewhere." C.S. Lewis

"The sum of wisdom is that time is never lost that is devoted to work." Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a failure." George Eliot

"Don't forget that some things count more than other things." William Saroyan

"There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm." Willa Cather

"Nobody can give you fearlessness. You have to practice it yourself." Thich Nhat Hahn

“All good work requires self-revelation.” Sidney Lumet

"To assess the quality of thoughts of people, don't listen to their words, but watch their actions.” Amit Kalantri

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Will Durant

"Inspiration usually comes during work, rather than before it." Madeleine L'Engle

“Always do things right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.” Mark Twain

"We create our fate every day we live." Henry Miller

"Pressure makes diamonds.” General George S. Patton

“We learn to do something by doing it. There is no other way.” John Holt

“A bad workman blames his tools.” Chinese Proverb

"The secret joy in work is contained in one word: excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it." Pearl S. Buck

“Surround yourself with a trusted and loyal team. It makes all the difference.” Alison Pincus, One Kings Lane

"If you want to have good ideas you must have many ideas. Most of them will be wrong, and what you have to learn is which ones to throw away." Linus Pauling

"Success is not money or style, but the progressive realization of your own goals." Jim Rohn

"Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway." John Wayne

"Without a standard there is no logical basis for making a decision or taking action." Joseph M. Juran

"Awareness is the greatest agent for change." Eckhart Tolle

"You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf." Jon Kabat-Zinn

"In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity." Albert Einstein

"Quality is conformance to requirements." Philip Crosby

"I learned to always take on things I’d never done before. Growth and comfort do not coexist.” Ginni Rometty, CEO of IBM

“Leadership is hard to define and good leadership even harder. But if you can get people to follow you to the ends of the earth, you are a great leader.” Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo

“Don’t be intimidated by what you don’t know. That can be your greatest strength and ensure that you do things differently from everyone else." Sara Blakely, Founder of Spanx

"Quality is everyone's responsibility." W. Edwards Deming

"The block of granite which was an obstacle in the pathway of the weak becomes a stepping stone in the pathway of the strong." Thomas Carlyle

“True leaders understand that leadership is not about them but about those they serve. It is not about exalting themselves but about lifting others up.” Sheri L. Dew

"Leaders should strive for authenticity over perfection.” Sheryl Sandberg

"Without passion, there is no genius." Theodor Mommsen

“Ninety percent of leadership is the ability to communicate something people want.” Dianne Feinstein

"Don't cling to a mistake simply because you spent a lot of time making it." Anonymous

“Don’t waste a single second. Just move forward as fast as you can, and go for it.” Rebecca Woodcock, Cake Health

“As a leader, it’s a major responsibility on your shoulders to practice the behavior you want others to follow.” Himanshu Bhatia, Rose International Inc.

"Everyone must row with the oars he or she has." Dutch proverb

"A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don't necessarily want to go, but ought to be." Rosalynn Carter, former First Lady

"We treat our people like royalty. If you honor and serve the people who work for you, they will honor and serve you.” Mary Kay Ash

"My father had a simple test that helps me measure my own leadership quotient: When you are out of the office, he once asked me, 'Does your staff carry on remarkable well without you?'” Martha Peak, AMA magazines

“Leadership is a series of behaviors rather than a role for heroes.” Margaret Wheatley, writer

“Leadership should be more participative than directive, more enabling than performing.” Mary D. Poole

“We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat; they do not exist.” Queen Victoria, Former Queen of the United Kingdom

“If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, then you are an excellent leader.” Dolly Parton

"A wise man adapts himself to circumstances, as water shapes itself to the vessel that contains it." Chinese proverb

“My best successes came on the heels of failures.” Barbara Corcoran

"Wherever you are is the entry point." Kabir

"Strategic leaders must not get consumed by the operational and tactical side of their work. They have a duty to find time to shape the future." Stephanie S. Mead, CMOE

"The only safe ship in a storm is leadership." Faye Wattleton, Alvarez & Marsal

“We do not need magic to change the world; we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already. We have the power to imagine better.” J.K. Rowling

"The ability to learn is the most important quality a leader can have." Sheryl Sandberg

"Your customers may not be always right, but sometimes they are always right." Douglas C. Krumm, Sr. Project Manager, Rockwell Collins

"The systems perspective tells us that we must look beyond individual mistakes or bad luck to understand important problems." Peter Senge

"Partial understanding of and involvement in quality can produce only partial success or total failure." Townsend and Gebhardt

“What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” Jane Goodall

"We move families, not just furniture." Allied Van Lines

"Everyone wants better quality and lower costs, but just doing what comes naturally or what is recommended by some consultant may backfire." Rafael Aguayo

"There is no substitute for hard work." Thomas Edison

“The way to achieve your own success is to be willing to help somebody else get it first.” Iyanla Vanzant

"Nothing happens unless first a dream." Carl Sandburg

"Quality cannot be copied; there is no step-by-step cookbook that applies equally to all company situations and cultures." Ernst & Young

“No matter how difficult and painful it may be, nothing sounds as good to the soul as the truth.” Martha Beck

"The problem of quality management is not what people don't know about it. The problem is what they think they do know." Philip Crosby

"Hitch your wagon to a star." Ralph Waldo Emerson

"You can't sell from an empty wagon." Charles Tandy, Tandy Corporation

"All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem." Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"A 'problem' is the distance between where you are now and where you could be, no matter how good you are now." Townsend and Gebhardt

"Little strokes fell great oaks." Benjamin Franklin

"If you cannot solve the real problem, change it into one you can solve." Mark Kac, mathematician

"The key is to get into the stores and listen." Sam Walton, Founder of Walmart

"Changing the culture of an institution is a slow process, and one that is best not rushed. If the effects of TQM are to be lasting, people have to want to be on board." Edward Sallis

"If there is one consistent lesson from those who have led this effort [toward continuous improvement], it is that there is no universal strategy for success." V. Daniel Hunt

"Effective statistical process control is 10% statistics and 90% management action." John Hradesky

“You can’t be that kid standing at the top of the waterslide, overthinking it. You have to go down the chute.” Tina Fey

"The best way to understand your customer is to become your customer and walk a mile in his shoes." Ian D. Littman

"There is one basic cause of all effects." Giordano Bruno, Italian philosopher

"Great things are not done by impulse...but by a series of small things brought together." Vincent Van Gogh

"The greatest of faults is to be conscious of none." Thomas Carlyle

"Failure is simply a reason to strengthen resolve." John W. Gardner

"We can be creative in our approach but never compromising in our quality." Jim Nelson (Lonza)

"You can never leave footprints that last if you are always walking on tiptoe.” Leymah Gbowee, Nobel laureate

“Everyone shines, given the right lighting.” Susan Cain, author

"Error is always in haste." Thomas Fuller

"Quality improvement at a revolutionary pace is now becoming simply good management." A. Blanton Godfrey

"Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things." Theodore Levitt

"The first job in decision making is to find the real problem and define it." Peter Drucker

"Quality improvement is a fragile process. All major processes are." Edward Sallis

"If you can’t go straight ahead, you go around the corner." Cher

"To err is human, but to be paid for it is divine." H. James Harrington

"Fear always represents objects in their worst light." Livy

"If you don’t risk anything, you risk even more." Erica Jong

"A leader teaches with patience. A manager without patience is no leader." Rafael Aguayo

"Curious that we spend more time congratulating people who have succeeded than encouraging people who have not." Neil deGrasse Tyson

"One picture is worth more than a thousand words." Anonymous

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." Aristotle

"Quality isn't expensive; it's priceless." Anonymous

“If you’re not making some notable mistakes along the way, you’re certainly not taking enough business and career chances.” Sallie Krawcheck

"The institutional leader...is primarily an expert in the promotion and protection of values." Philip Selznick

"Two wrongs can never make a right." English Proverb

"The market is never saturated with a good product but it is very quickly saturated with a bad one." Henry Ford

"With the customer as a reference point, priorities become easier to set." Mary Walton

“The difference between successful people and others is how long they spend time feeling sorry for themselves.” Barbara Corcoran

"'What is our business?' is not determined by the producer but by the customer." Peter Drucker

“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.” Eleanor Roosevelt

"No one knows what it is that he can do until he tries." Publilius Syrus

"Customer needs and satisfaction are constantly changing targets." Juran Institute, Inc.

"Quality control is applicable to any kind of enterprise; in fact, it must be applied to every enterprise." Kaoru Ishikawa

"Quality thinking is the same as profitable thinking in the long term." Wasi Asghar, Suminter India Organics

"The great difficulty in education is to get experience out of ideas." George Santayana

"Consumers, by seeking quality and value, set the standards of acceptability for products and services by voting with their marketplace dollars." Ronald Reagan

“In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.” Coco Chanel

"Manage from the left side of the brain; lead from the right." Steven Covey

"Managers do things right, leaders do the right things." Bennis and Nanus

"Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

“The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.” Amelia Earhart

"I believe the leader's ultimate job is to spread hope." Bob Galvin, Motorola

"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving." Albert Einstein

"Human beings are more alike than one would think at first." Abraham Maslow

"The biggest challenge in maintaining a quality management system is ensuring consistency in established practice, in a consistently changing business environment." Sng Yang Seng, senior manager, quality assurance, LSG ST Electronics

"In the best institutions, promises are kept no matter what the cost in agony and overtime." David Ogilvy

"The spirit of the thing lives in the details." Mies van der Rohe

"He who runs his company on visible figures alone will soon have neither company nor visible figures to work with." W. Edwards Deming

"It’s not the absence of fear, it’s overcoming it. Sometimes you’ve got to blast through and have faith.” Emma Watson

"I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty." John D. Rockefeller

"Unless the problem is prevented from happening again, root cause is just a theory." Govind Ramu, Program Manager, Google, Mountain View, Calif.

"Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple, learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen." John Steinbeck

"Failure is a matter of self-conceit. Men don't work hard because, in their self-conceit, they think they are so clever that they'll succeed without working hard." Thomas Edison

"It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious." Alfred North Whitehead

“I didn’t get there by wishing for it or hoping for it, but by working for it.” Estée Lauder

"Where is quality made? Quality is made in the boardroom." W. Edwards Deming

"People learn most rapidly when they have a genuine sense of responsibility for their actions." Peter Senge

"Wisely and slowly; they stumble that run fast." William Shakespeare

"It has been well said that the effective leader must know the meaning and master the technique of the educator." Philip Selznick

“A good compromise is one where everybody makes a contribution.” Angela Merkel

"There is no substitute for hard work." Thomas Edison

“What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” Jane Goodall

"Quality is when customer satisfaction goes far north and when scrap and rework rates go way south." Paul Tang, quality and project manager

"The most common source of mistakes in management decisions is the emphasis on finding the right answer rather than the right question." Peter Drucker

"It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all the evidence. It biases the judgment." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

“Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.” Golda Meir

"Preaching quality won't help." Hammer and Champy

"Our reputation for quality is only as good as our last machine or our last customer call." Frank Cary

"The winds and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators." Edward Gibbon

"Organizational excellence is not about the management of quality. It is about the quality of management." Haim Berman

"I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty." John D. Rockefeller

"Empowerment is all about letting go so that others can get going." Jack Welch

"Plans are nothing. Planning is everything." Dwight Eisenhower

"I need to listen well so that I hear what is not said.” Thuli Madonsela

“When you’re through changing, you’re through.” Martha Stewart

"If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?" John Wooden

"The price for ignoring the impact of design on service can be staggering." Davidow and Uttal

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." English Proverb

"The secret to preparing for success is no secret at all." Robb E. Dalton

"Coordination and productive use of differences should be achieved by group decision making processes used skillfully throughout the company." Rensis Likert

"The team concept conveys the message that PQI (Productivity and Quality Improvement) is everybody's business." John Hradesky

"My first message is: Listen, listen, listen to the people who do the work." H. Ross Perot

"Only through the collective efforts of their individual members do companies change; companies are incapable of changing themselves." V. Daniel Hunt

"Despite what the textbooks say, most important decisions in corporate life are made by individuals, not by committees." Lee Iacocca

"One good head is better than a hundred strong hands." Thomas Fuller

"High-quality companies treat their human resource as a resource, not a commodity." Steven George

"Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason so few engage in it." Henry Ford

"Compliance is an intended consequence of quality." Paula Burdick Parsons, CMQ/OE

"The most difficult problem to solve is employee indifference: people closing their eyes and choosing to do nothing." Katsuyoshi Ishihara

"If management thinks people don't care, it's likely that people won't care." F. James McDonald, General Motors

"What we have to learn to do, we learn by doing." Louis Pasteur

"When we stop improving, we start to slip backward." H. James Harrington

"Treat the small as great and the few as many." Lao-tzu

“Don’t live life in the past lane.” Samantha Ettus, American Author

"If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten." Anonymous

"He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator." Francis Bacon

"All good things which exist are the fruits of originality." John Stuart Mill

"Management's job is not to promote satisfaction with the way things are, but to create dissatisfaction with the way things are and could be." Edward M. Baker

"Quality is when the customer returns and the product does not." Tim Robertson

"We only get one chance to do it right the first time." Jeffrey S. Schiopota, Aspire Brands

"Develop a healthy disrespect for the impossible." Gene Hoffman, SuperValu Inc.

"No great discovery was ever made without a bold guess." Isaac Newton

"The mind is slow to unlearn what it has been long in learning." Seneca

"The new idea either finds a champion or dies." Edward Schon

"Some men see things as they are, and say, 'Why?' I dream of things that never were, and say, 'Why not?'" Bernard Shaw

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world." Albert Einstein

"Most managers are reluctant to let their people run with the ball. But you'd be surprised how fast an informed and motivated guy can run." Lee Iacocca

"Management's principal job is to get the herd heading roughly west." Peters and Waterman

"A world of facts lies outside and beyond the world of words." Thomas Huxley

"The best way to predict the future is to create it." Peter Drucker

"If you have to remind people that you are the leader, then you are not." Jorge Zegarra, Director, COS Training Resource Center

"Quality control and standardization are extremely closely linked." Katsuya Hosotani

"Quality needs to be constantly improved, but it is just as necessary to make sure that quality never deteriorates." Shigeru Mizuno

"Self-generated quality control is more effective than inspector-generated quality control." Thomas J. Peters

"The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man's foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher." Thomas Huxley

"The customers do not feel the average. They feel the variation." Tom Groark

"There is no such thing as a perfect method. Methods always can be improved upon." Walter Daiber

"An environment which calls for perfection is not likely to be easy. But aiming for it is always a goad to progress." Thomas Watson, Jr.

"Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things." Diderot

"That which we persist in doing becomes easier – not that the nature of the task has changed, but our ability to do has increased." Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Do not let the tiniest problem escape your notice. Remember: little brooks grow into mighty rivers." Katsuyoshi Ishihara

"Thee findeth a solution and I promise thee to findeth another problem to mull. . . ." Sameer B. Chougle

"Running a company by profit alone is like driving a car by looking in the rearview mirror. It tells you where you've been, not where you are going." Rafael Aguayo

"Quality comes not from inspection but from improvement of the process." Mary Walton

"Effective solutions to any problem circumvent blame and begin with you." Amy E. Smith, reliability technician, Bayer HealthCare

"Some say, 'You only get what you measure.' I say, 'And that's all you get!'" A. Donald Stratton

"The ability to learn is the most important quality a leader can have." Sheryl Sandberg

"Quality improvement will result from people improving their processes and from management improving the system." Thomas Pyzdek

"Quality is not an act; it is a habit." Aristotle

"Quality means doing it right when no one is looking." Henry Ford

"I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more of it I seem to have." Coleman Cox

"The concept of managing the moments of truth is the very essence of service management." Albrecht and Zemke

"No dream comes true until you wake up and go to work." Herbert V. Prochnow

"If change is to occur, it must come about through hard work within the organization itself." Gordon Lippitt

"In the USA, about a third of what we do consists of redoing work previously 'done.'" Joseph M. Juran

"We have 50,000 moments of truth out there every day." Jan Carlzon

"To change is to risk something. That makes us insecure. Not to change is the bigger risk, but it seldom feels that way." Robert H. Waterman, Jr.

"The only stability possible is stability in motion." John W. Gardner

"Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards." Søren Kierkegaard

"No army can withstand the strength of an idea whose time has come." Victor Hugo

"You've got to be willing to fail." James Burke (Johnson & Johnson)

"The process of change (like charity) begins with the individual." Harry Forsha

"Quality is the degree of excellence at an acceptable price and the control of variability at an acceptable cost." Robert A. Broh

"Continuous improvement is nothing but the development of ever better methods." Mary Walton

"Once you adopt and communicate a quality policy, stick with it, live it, and protect it. You get only one chance!" Thomas Berry

"The transformation to world-class quality is not possible without committed, visionary, hands-on leadership." Steven George

"The only way to get people to adopt constant improvement as a way of life in doing daily business is by empowering them." Byham and Cox

"To desire to have things done quickly prevents their being done thoroughly." Confucius

"In considering quality, it is often necessary to turn your thinking upside down and to realize that quality and profit are not mutually exclusive." Shigeru Mizuno

"The ability to learn faster than your competitors may be the only sustainable competitive advantage." Arie De Geus, Royal Dutch/Shell

"In world-class organizations, working to improve quality is not an extracurricular activity. It is a minimum requirement." Chang, Labovitz, and Rosansky

"Benchmarking means out-maneuvering your competitors." Allan Sayle, Quality Author

"You can't learn anything when you're trying to look like the smartest person in the room." Barbara Kingsolver, Novelist

"Service is not a competitive edge, it is the competitive edge." Albrecht and Zemke

"Change begins at the top." John Hradesky

"Nobody will take his eyes off the income statement or put his heart on the line without constant demonstration of support from the top." Davidow and Uttal

"There's no great success without great commitment." Tony Robbins

"Quality is not a task done to products, services, processes, or people; it is what we collaboratively embrace, commit to, and present as an entire organization." Amy E. Smith, Reliability Technician, Bayer HealthCare

"Quality is a value and a method and both must be routine." Karen L. Hansen, Director of Quality Assurance and Compliance, Allied Community Resources

"Commitment is measured in terms of visible and tangible things, not in terms of rhetoric." Murgatroyd and Morgan