Top 200 W. Edwards Deming Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “In God we trust; all others bring data.”

— W. Edwards Deming

Featured in: Business Quotes, Statistics Quotes

2. “Quality is everyone’s responsibility.”

— W. Edwards Deming

Featured in: Business Quotes, Motivational Quotes for Work, Quotes About Work, Responsibility Quotes

3. “Improve quality, you automatically improve productivity.”

— W. Edwards Deming

Featured in: Business Quotes, Quality Quotes, Important Quotes, Productivity Quotes

4. “If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.”

— W. Edwards Deming

Featured in: Business Quotes, Inspirational Quotes for Work, Quality Quotes, Efficiency Quotes

5. “Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion.”

— W. Edwards Deming

Featured in: Performance Quotes, Science Quotes, Quotes for Better Decisions, Statistics Quotes

6. “A bad system will beat a good person every time.”

— W. Edwards Deming

7. “Quality comes not from inspection, but from improvement of the production process.”

— W. Edwards Deming

Featured in: Business Quotes, Efficiency Quotes

8. “Without questions, there is no learning.”

— W. Edwards Deming

Featured in: Learning Quotes

9. “Manage the cause, not the result.”

— W. Edwards Deming

Featured in: Problem-Solving Quotes

10. “Innovation comes from people who take joy in their work.”

— W. Edwards Deming

Featured in: Excellence Quotes, Quotes About Work, Progress Quotes, Joy Quotes

11. “Eighty-five percent of the reasons for failure are deficiencies in the systems and process rather than the employee. The role of management is to change the process rather than badgering individuals to do better.”

— W. Edwards Deming

Featured in: Quality Quotes, Efficiency Quotes, Trust The Process Quotes

12. “We are here to learn, to make a difference and to have fun.”

— W. Edwards Deming

Featured in: Short Positive Quotes, Friday Quotes for Work, Positive Short Quotes, Inspirational Quotes for Students

13. “Quality is pride of workmanship.”

— W. Edwards Deming

Featured in: Inspirational Quotes for Work, Excellence Quotes, Work Ethic Quotes, Quality Quotes

14. “Uncontrolled variation is the enemy of quality.”

— W. Edwards Deming

Featured in: Quality Quotes, Consistency Quotes, Principles And Laws

15. “Each system is perfectly designed to give you exactly what you are getting today.”

— W. Edwards Deming

16. “A goal without a method is nonsense.”

— W. Edwards Deming

17. “Put a good person in a bad system and the bad system wins, no contest.”

— W. Edwards Deming

18. “The ultimate purpose of collecting the data is to provide a basis for action or a recommendation.”

— W. Edwards Deming

Featured in: Problem-Solving Quotes, Quotes for Better Decisions, Statistics Quotes

19. “When we cooperate, everybody wins.”

— W. Edwards Deming

20. “We should work on our process, not the outcome of our processes.”

— W. Edwards Deming

21. “There is no substitute for knowledge.”

— W. Edwards Deming

Featured in: Knowledge Quotes

22. “It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.”

— W. Edwards Deming

Featured in: Survival Quotes

23. “Survival is optional. No one has to change.”

— W. Edwards Deming

24. “Inspection with the aim of finding the bad ones and throwing them out is too late, ineffective, and costly. Quality comes not from inspection but from improvement of the process.”

— W. Edwards Deming

Featured in: Lean Methodology Quotes

25. “Understanding variation is the key to success in quality and business.”

— W. Edwards Deming

26. “The biggest cost of poor quality is when your customer buys it from someone else because they didn’t like yours.”

— W. Edwards Deming

27. “Quality starts in the boardroom.”

— W. Edwards Deming

28. “You can expect what you inspect.”

— W. Edwards Deming

29. “Defects are not free. Somebody makes them, and gets paid for making them.”

— W. Edwards Deming

30. “If you do not know how to ask the right question, you discover nothing.”

— W. Edwards Deming

Featured in: Problem-Solving Quotes

31. “Transformation is not automatic. It must be learned; it must be led.”

— W. Edwards Deming

32. “A leader is a coach, not a judge.”

— W. Edwards Deming

33. “Every system is perfectly designed to get the result that it does.”

— W. Edwards Deming

34. “Management by results – like driving a car by looking in rear view mirror.”

— W. Edwards Deming

35. “Nobody goes to work to do a bad job.”

— W. Edwards Deming

Featured in: Friday Quotes for Work

36. “People are entitled to joy in work.”

— W. Edwards Deming

Featured in: Friday Quotes for Work, Engagement Quotes

37. “Nobody should try to use data unless he has collected data.”

— W. Edwards Deming

Featured in: Statistics Quotes

38. “People are born with intrinsic motivation, self-esteem, dignity, curiosity to learn, joy in learning.”

— W. Edwards Deming

39. “Everyone is a customer for somebody, or a supplier to somebody.”

— W. Edwards Deming

40. “You cannot inspect quality into the product; it is already there.”

— W. Edwards Deming

41. “To manage one must lead. To lead, one must understand the work that he and his people are responsible for.”

— W. Edwards Deming

42. “Nothing happens without personal transformation.”

— W. Edwards Deming

43. “Just because you can measure everything doesn’t mean that you should.”

— W. Edwards Deming

44. “Learning is not compulsory; it’s voluntary. Improvement is not compulsory; it’s voluntary. But to survive, we must learn.”

— W. Edwards Deming

Featured in: Learning Quotes

45. “Quality begins with the intent, which is fixed by management.”

— W. Edwards Deming

46. “It is not enough to do your best, you must know what to do, and then do your best.”

— W. Edwards Deming

47. “Divide responsibility and nobody is responsible.”

— W. Edwards Deming

48. “The most important things cannot be measured.”

— W. Edwards Deming

49. “Management is prediction.”

— W. Edwards Deming

50. “To optimize the whole, we must sub-optimize the parts.”

— W. Edwards Deming