Quotes about Quality

Here's the next section of quotes from my book 1000 Great Quotations for Business, Management & Training.


An updated version of the book is newly available as part of my Almost Free Kindle titles both in the UK and in the USA.

It’s a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.

Somerset Maugham, British author dramatist (1874-1965)

Somerset Maugham

Find the qualities in your people and you find the quality in your company.

Simon Hornby, British retail business leader, W H Smith (1935-2010)

How long does it take you, as a boss, to achieve world class quality? Less than a nanosecond to attain it, a lifetime of passionate pursuit to maintain it.

Tom Peters, US management author, presenter (b. 1942)

Quality is free.

Philip B Crosby, US management author (1926-2001)

In communities where men build ships for their own sons to fish or fight from, quality is never a problem.

J Deville

With ISO 9000 you can still have terrible processes and products. You can certify a manufacturer that makes life jackets from concrete, as long as those jackets are made according to the documented procedures and the company provides the next of kin with instructions on how to complain about defects.

Richard Buetow, US executive, Motorola (b. 1931)

Don’t confuse consistency with quality. The customer decides what quality is by their own standards.

Geoff Burch, British management author, presenter (b. 1951)

Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.

Oscar Wilde, Irish dramatist, poet (1854-1900)

The trouble with doing something right the first time is that nobody appreciates how difficult it was.

Walt West, US manufacturing executive

It is a very sobering feeling to be up in space and realise that one’s safety factor was determined by the lowest bidder on a government contract.

Alan Shepard, US astronaut (1923-1998)

The greater the emphasis on perfection the further it recedes.

Haridas Chaudhuri, Indian philosopher, author (1913-1975)

Quality control starts and ends with training.

Kaoru Ishikawa, Japanese quality guru, author (1915-1989)

The CEO of a small company decided they needed a motto to commemorate their longevity in the industry. This is what he came up with: ‘Our innovation makes us first – our quality makes us last.’

Scott Adams, US cartoonist, author (b. 1957)