Hi, you all Quality Gurus.
Im doing a campaign on the importance of quality in my organization, and i need some quality quotes to send to each one of my employees for their interest and knowledge. Can you help me on this so I can obtain a great number of quotes. ???

Thanx

Guess I'll start you off.

In Eliyahu M. Goldratt's book the goal, I found these.

...What to change?, What to change to?, and how to cause the change?....If a manager doesn't know how to answer those three questions is he or she entitled to be called a manager?

....Intuitive conclusions are masked by something that is not common sense... Common Practice.

....A measurement not clearly defined is worse than useless.

My wife gave me a plaque with this on it

......."Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, Sincere effort, intellegent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.

Hope this helps.

James

I have this one, but I can't remember who said it:

"All companies don't need quality....
All companies do not have to survive..."

/Claes

Jim Wade said:

Claes: I think the 'survival' quote may be one of Ed Deming's: "Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival".

rgds Jim
You're probably right. (I read it in Swedish).

/Claes

"Everybody elses job looks easier than our own, and the better they do it, the easier it looks"

I use it all the time because my co-workers think I have it made!
:bigwave: :ko: :smokin:

I put a quote in our news letter monthly, here are a few of my favorites:
Fail to plan,plan to fail Robert Schuler
Production is not the application of tools to materials, but logic to work Peter Drucker
In a big corporation, you tend to blame problems on the system, in a small company you are the system Ken Wolf
Insanity is doing the same thing with the same tools and expecting the results to be different Anonymous
The bitterness of poor quality remains long after low pricing is forgotten Leon Cautillo
To a hammer, everything looks a nail Mark Twain
There is no right way to do a wrong thing Norman Vincent Peale
If you can't measure it, you can't manage it Peter Drucker
Vision without action is a daydream, action without vision is a nightmare Japanese Proverb
The price of greatness is responsibility Winston Churchill
For every dolllar spent on preventive work, you save nine in corrective work Mike Birne GE
In God we trust, all others we audit Anonymous
The secret of success is changing the way you think Jack Welch
Great minds iscuss ideas,average minds discuss events,small minds discuss people Admiral H. Rickover

I'm a simpleton. My favourite 'quality' (or otherwise applicable) phrase is "This will never happen again. I've made sure of that through a thorough investigation and a verified corrective action."

As if that's a truth... :thedeal: And when it happens again....

Attached are a few quote I picked up somewhere.

Russ

You might also want to check out Quality Quotes by Helio Gomes, ASQ Quality Press (1996) ISBN 0-87389-407-3.

Here are some of my favorites. Not everyone will consider them "quality" quotes, but I do.

"Integrity has no need of rules". - Albert Camus

"The truth is, that all men having power ought to be distrusted". - James Madison

"Trust a chef who licks his own fingers". - Shakespeare?

"**** is other people". - Jean-Paul Sartre

"To change thy mind and follow him that sets thee right is to be none the less the free agent that thou wast before". - Marcus Aurelius

"Some nights you're just not breaking off the curve". - Jim Lonborg

"All men are alike in their promises; it is only their actions which reveal their differences". - Moliere

"But variation is the irreducible reality; nature provides nothing else". - Stephen Jay Gould

"Bonum est faciendum et prosequendum, et malum vitandum". (Good is to be done and pursued, and evil avoided). - Thomas Aquinas

Just a couple of my favorites from the world of sports.

"If you're not keeping score, you're only practicing." -Vince Lombardi

"It may only be a game of inches, but I want that inch." -Vince Lombardi

"We trained hard... But every time we were beginning to form up into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing ... And a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing inefficiency and demoralization."

Petronius
First Century A.D.

"Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug."
Mary Chapin Carpenter

Hey!! Gurus!!!!
Im very happy because i get that many answers...this is a very good material for innmediate use!!!
This is great!!!
Thanx Again!

PD.
Visit on your next vacation Dominican Republic, (Punta Cana, Bavaro, Casa de Campo) you'll love it here!!!

I have several I like:

Quality is a benevolent dictatorship.

Trust in God, all others provide data.

Any day you don't wake up with a chalk outline around your body, its a good day. (I know thats not related to quality, but its good advice)

Always remember, nobody cares as much about what you are saying as you do. Its your job to make them care.

Hey Telefonia,
This is turning into a great thread. Thanks for starting it. Istarted going thrugh some of my old books and found these.

"When you get right down to the meaning of the word "succeed", youfind it means to follow through.
- F. W. Nichol

Why Not spend some time in determining what is worthwile for us, and then go after that?
- William Ross

Good order is the foundation of all good things.
- Edmond Burke


The man with a new idea is a Crank until the idea succeeds.
- Mark Twain


and from the Red Green Show....
"Remember, if the women don't find ya handsome, they whould at least find ya handy."

James:vfunny:

Michael T said:

"Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug."
Mary Chapin Carpenter

Actually, this was written by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits.

Dan Armstrong said:



Actually, this was written by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits.


Ahhh... thanks for the correction... BTW, what song? I'm a long time Dire Straits fan and don't remember that line. I just recalled MCC singing it.

Jim Wade said:

The Bug
(Mark Knopfler)

This is from memory but I think it goes something like ...

Well it's a strange old game you learn it slow
One step forward and it's back you go
You're standing on the throttle
You're standing on the brake
In the groove 'til you make a mistake
Sometimes you're the windshield
Sometimes you're the bug

*snip*


Okay - now I get it... :D MCC did a cover of the song... Thanks for the scoop.

I read something last night that knocked my socks off. I can’t quote verbatim but here is something close:

- A captain of a ship without an aim needn’t worry which way the wind is blowing.

Seneca, 4 BC to 65 AD

I browsed the net and found these:

- We are more easily led part by part to an understanding of the whole

- Diligence is a very great help even to a mediocre intelligence

- The gladiator is making his plan in the arena (i.e. too late)

- Ignorance is the cause of fear

- To err is human

It put a smile on my face.

http://www.cyber-nation.com/victory/quotations/authors/quotes_seneca.html


Regards,

Kevin

I found it and another.

"I shall never be ashamed of citing a bad author if the line is good."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca (5BC - 65AD)

"If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca (5BC - 65AD)

Kevin,

In a similar vein:

"People seldom hit what they don't aim at". - Thoreau

"What is the use of running if we are not on the right road"? - German Proverb

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

"Our great business in life is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand". -Thomas Carlyle

"There is more to life than increasing its speed". - Mahatma Gandhi

John,

Good ones!! It reminded me of this one:

" 'Do something! Do it now!' Do what?" - W. Edwards Deming

The Ghandi quote is terrific!! Oh, by the way: Go Sox!!

Jim,

And so lives on the 'Caretaker's Syndrom'... to the point that things go "... down the tubes!" WED

Regards gentlemen,

Kev:bigwave:

Kevin,

Gandhi had his priorities in order.

There are quotes that apply to the Sox also. For example,

"But all excellent things are as difficult as they are rare". - Spinoza

Or perhaps more exactly,

"For us, there is only the trying". - T.S. Eliot

OUCH!! Mr. Eliot. That hurts!!!

Quote from one of the Fenway Faithful in regards Mr. Eliot -

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Jim,

Interesting point.

Kev

Kevin Mader said:

I read something last night that knocked my socks off. I can’t quote verbatim but here is something close:

- A captain of a ship without an aim needn’t worry which way the wind is blowing.

Seneca, 4 BC to 65 AD

I browsed the net and found these:

- We are more easily led part by part to an understanding of the whole

- Diligence is a very great help even to a mediocre intelligence

- The gladiator is making his plan in the arena (i.e. too late)

- Ignorance is the cause of fear

- To err is human

It put a smile on my face.

Don't forget the old standby addition to err is human, but to blame it on someone else is more human:vfunny: :ko: :smokin:

Or, to quote Nietsche,

"I have done that" says my Memory. "I could not have done that", says my Pride, and remains inexorable. Finally, my Memory yields.

"People will know you're serious when you produce." -Muhammed Ali

"Success isn't permanent, and failure isn't fatal." -Mike Ditka

"If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work your way around it." -Michael Jordan

"Don't look back. Something may be gaining on you." -Satchel Paige

"I want to share something with you - the three sentences that will get you through life. Number one, 'Cover for me.' Number two, 'Oh, good idea, boss.' Number three, 'It was like that when I got here.'" Homer (Simpson)

"99% of statistics are made up" - Vic Reeves

" Never mistake motion for action"

Ernest hemingway

Couple of my favorites...

By my old Engineering Manager, "Opinion is like a bellybutton, everybody has one... in God I trust and all others bring data."

By Dick Shainin a few years ago, "All models are wrong... some are just more useful than others."

My boss came up with this one:

"Are you on-line again? Log off and get back to work before I rip your head off!"

I am pink, therefore I'm spam.
(anon)

Not sure where this came from.........

"The analysis of the decline in mathematical aptitude can be attributed as 78% teaching methods and 24% government policy"

Chris

This is a sh!t sandwich and we are all going to have to take a bite

There's no 'I' in 'team'. But then there's no 'I' in 'useless smug colleague', either. And there's four in 'platitude-quoting idiot'. Go figure.


and which one of you sent in this gem.........

http://www.bbc.co.uk - Link was: /comedy/theoffice/wisdom/wisdom3_3.shtml

There are a few Oldies but Goodies here (some repeats):

http://Elsmar.com/quotes/

In the Old Testament, there is a passage like "For without vision, the people shall perish". Can someone tell which passage? That is one Author I don't want to plagiarize!

My favorite of all time:

"It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor dangerous to manage than the creation of a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institution and merely lukewarm defenders in those who would gain by the new one" - Niccolo Machiavelli (The Prince)

In the Old Testament, there is a passage like "For without vision, the people shall perish". Can someone tell which passage? That is one Author I don't want to plagiarize!
Proverbs 29:18 Where [there is] no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy [is] he.

Tom, re:
In the Old Testament, there is a passage like "For without vision, the people shall perish". Can someone tell which passage?

Proverbs 29:18

"When your swimming in Sh@# lake, you learn not to spalsh" Anaon

"What the @#$, where did all those indians come from?" General Custer :mg:

"What are these blips on my rardar? Don't worry about it, it's probably nothing" Radar operators supervisor to operator, Pearl Harbor Hawaii

"So you got burned. Now don't turn around and sit on the blister."

Anonymous (regarding relationships)

Jennifer

I'll take reponsibility for this one:

"Quality First"; not just an empty slogan!

Tom

YOUR FIRED! (Donald Trump)Wallace.

Hi All,

These are my favourite sayings on 'Change'

‘Whosoever desires constant success must change with the times’
Niccoló Machiavelli (1469 – 1527)
Italian Statesman and Political Philosopher


‘There is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things. For there reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new’
Niccoló Machiavelli (1469 – 1527)

‘Nothing endures but change’
Heraclitus (600 BC)

Greg B

With all the current media hype on oil supply and prices, this quote explains how it all got started:

"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're
crazy."
--Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill
for oil in 1859.

If only we had listened maybe the other energy sources would have taken off.

Bill

This is actually about science, but the idea applies if you change "science" to "quality" or "Six Sigma", or SPC".

Science is built of facts the way a house is built of bricks, but an accumulation of facts is no more science than a pile of bricks is a house.
- Henri Poincare'

There can be a tendency to do lots of calculations and create lots of charts, but until you can put it together to see the "house" rather than the individual "bricks", you aren't getting as much as you should from the information.


Tim F

One from Metrology that went aroundyears ago.....don't worry, if you can identify, you likely are not the onely one.....

"We do precision guesswork"

It's Dr. George E Box's quote

The origination of the 'altered' insanity quote:
"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results" - Rita Mae Brown.

I always like this one as it is so true,

"The only thing constant is change"

Author unknown at this time

"So many people seek the key to Quality not realizing it's a combination lock"
-Unknown

I heard this regarding relationships but think it has a place in the business world also - author unknown:

Anything that ends, ends badly

When in trouble, when in doubt,

Run in circles, scream & shout.:biglaugh:

When in trouble, when in doubt,

Run in circles, scream & shout.:biglaugh:

Or, "When in doubt, punt" :lol:

Or, "When in doubt, punt" :lol:I've been using one for 40 years - I may even be the creator, I'm not sure:
"When in doubt, tell the truth!"
I've taken some terrible tongue-lashings, but never been fired for telling the truth.

In a similar vein, I once told a boss years ago who asked me to lie to a customer, "If I'd lie for you, I'd lie to you", and I did not.

For 40 years I have been hearing manufacturing say:
"When in doubt, ship it out"

and quality retorts:
"When in doubt, scrap it out"

We all know these are not true, but is it a coincidence that wherever you work, and no matter the product you make or the market you sell to, people have an uncanny way of saying the same things.
Are these like "Urban Legends" for manufacturing facilities?

Since I have never seen anyone use it before I have always laid claim to what I call the Pflanz 2 Step Improvement Process.

"We think we know what the problem is and we think we know the solution."

With this process, you do not need facts, fancy charts or any thing else. Just identify the problem and solution in a meeting and implement. I don't promote the use of it, I just note it when it is applied. I have even seen large improvement projects that have multiple steps but when you cut through all the large descriptions it is still a 2 step process.

Bill Pflanz

Since I have never seen anyone use it before I have always laid claim to what I call the Pflanz 2 Step Improvement Process.

"We think we know what the problem is and we think we know the solution."

With this process, you do not need facts, fancy charts or any thing else. Just identify the problem and solution in a meeting and implement. I don't promote the use of it, I just note it when it is applied. I have even seen large improvement projects that have multiple steps but when you cut through all the large descriptions it is still a 2 step process.

Bill Pflanz


Bill, in reply (and I don't think we've seen this one yet?)

"In God we trust. All others must bring data."

I don't know who said it first.

Hopefully, this breaks no rules.

Craig

Bill, in reply (and I don't think we've seen this one yet?)

"In God we trust. All others must bring data." I don't know who said it first.
Hopefully, this breaks no rules. Craig

That one's been around for a long long long time!

One of my favorites came out of a trade mag. . . it showed an Engineer holding his head and yelling to a machinist, "You mean you made it to the Print?"

For 40 years I have been hearing manufacturing say:
"When in doubt, ship it out"

and quality retorts:
"When in doubt, scrap it out"

We all know these are not true, but is it a coincidence that wherever you work, and no matter the product you make or the market you sell to, people have an uncanny way of saying the same things.
Are these like "Urban Legends" for manufacturing facilities?I don't know about urban legends, but I earned a large part of my college money working part-time at a steel (and non-ferrous) service center. That company didn't have the jargon of 5S, but we kept that place so clean, you could literally eat off the various work tables of saws, shears, torches, slitters. Despite all the protective oils on sheet and bar stock, the floors were maintained clean and dry. Folk from the office came out into the warehouse and work areas in suits, ties, heels & skirts, and never got them dirty.

Customer service was absolutely our job #1. Our rule always was "measure twice, cut once, then measure again" and no employee EVER considered sloughing off on the job.

I recently went back to visit after an absence of 35 years on a whim.
Of course, no individuals I had known were still with the company, but the ethic seems to have remained. The warehouse and work area were spotless. Many more automated machines were in evidence - therefore the number of people was less, but it still seemed to be a highly efficient workplace, dedicated to getting the customer what he wanted. For the heck of it, as I was being escorted on a tour of the facility, I stopped and asked some "audit-type" questions of the various workers. I would have been proud to have them in any shop I was in charge of. The guy running coil slitters knew the three major mills they bought steel coils from as well as the two major aluminum mills and similar info for copper and brass suppliers. He could name his biggest customers for aluminum and some of their special needs.

The guy running a cutting torch cutting shapes out of steel plate talked knowledgeably about his equipment and how he knew when it needed "tuning." When I asked about ISO - no one knew what I was talking about - they were not ISO certified and made no attempt to be compliant - they had their own Standard - the best!

Here's a quote from an old boss of mine when talking about a Product Engineering Dept.

"If you over-engineer it, we're guaranteed to under-manufacture it"

I know this isn't a quality quote, but . . . . . This was on a poster showing a person in a yellow radiation clean up suit {canary suit}.
"Nuclear weapons cause lots of rubble,
The man in yellow means you're in trouble.":mg:

Isn't there one about "A failure to plan is a plan for failure" or something like that?

This might be a good resource for you also -->
Quality Quotes by Helio Gomes.
249 pages. ISBN 0-87389-407-3. 6 x 9 Softcover. 1996.
I am sure it is available in most bookstores, or from the ASQ website.

5 P's..............Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance

Always used by my Mother in Law!

"Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?"

John Belushi - Animal House

NOTICE: 'The only person getting his work done by Friday was Robinson Crusoe'

'Quality is not an Act. It is a Habit' Aristotle

'You can't drive into the future using a rearvision mirror'

'If you do not think about the future, you cannot have one' Anonymous

Greg B

I trust that this isn't taken as a political statement because it is not.

"It is the soldier, not the reporter who has given us the freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us the freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who gives us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag." -- Father Dennis Edward O'Brien, Sergeant, USMC

Had to share my "new favorite" quote, read in Edward R. Murrow's "This I Believe,"

"Money is a wonderful thing, but it is possible to pay too high a price for it."

I trust that this isn't taken as a political statement because it is not.

"It is the soldier, not the reporter who has given us the freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us the freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who gives us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag." -- Father Dennis Edward O'Brien, Sergeant, USMC
Randy,

Mate, from a 20 year serviceman, thankyou. This is one of the best quotes I have ever read. It WILL be printed out and stuck above my workstation. It is like the Jack Nicolson speech in 'A few good men' very moving.

Thanks