W. Edwards Deming Quotes

All people owe their lives to surrounding society.

When we choose for ourselves, we also choose for others.

Human beings are members of a whole, In creation of one essence and soul. If one member is afflicted with pain, Other members uneasy will remain. If you have no sympathy for human pain, The name of human you cannot retain.

We have our own history, our own language, our own culture. But our destiny is also tied up with the destinies of other people - history has made us all South Africans

The world does not owe any man a living, but we all owe one another a living.

we all need each other, none of us is an island, an autonomous and independent "I," separated from the other, and we can only build the future by standing together, including everyone. We don’t think about it often, but everything is connected, and we need to restore our connections to a healthy state. Even the harsh judgment I hold in my heart against my brother or my sister, the open wound that was never cured, the offense that was never forgiven, the rancor that is only going to hurt me, are all instances of a fight that I carry within me, a flare deep in my heart that needs to be extinguished before it goes up in flames, leaving only ashes behind.

Society is the body; individuals are its members, its limbs. Just as the various limbs help and co-operate with one another and thus are happy, so each must unite with others in being helpful to all in thought, speech and action... One may see to the good of one's own group, i.e., the group that is immediate to him, and then proceed to others.

That's the way we see life: your community is your survival. And if you live in a small community like this, even the people you hate you have as friends.

I believe in the power of one and that we are all bound by the thread of oneness and humanity.

When you win, you win together and when you lose, you lose together too.

Way I see it, everyone plays their own role in the world, and no role is more important than the other.

We are all connected. The pain and suffering of others is yours also, on some level, whether you choose to pay attention or not. The reason we can't achieve total bliss is because you're not here solo.

We win together, and we lose together.

I believe in a kind of literature which makes clear that, at a deeper level, below the surface, we are tied together through invisible but existing threads. A kind of literature which talks about a lively, ever-changing world of unity, of which we are a small, but not insignificant part.

When I do something, I consult my family, so that when you get me, you get my whole family.

Humans have to realise they're not individuals but individual parts of the same organism, with responsibility to each other.

I think one has to understand, not as a theory, not as a speculative, entertaining concept, but rather as an actual fact - that we are the world and the world is us. The world is each one of us; to feel that, to be really committed to it and to nothing else, brings about a feeling of great responsibility and an action that must not be fragmentary, but whole.

The world owes us nothing; we owe each other the world.

There is no escape - man drags man down, or man lifts man up.

A system must be managed. It will not manage itself. Left to themselves in the Western world, components become selfish, competitive. We cannot afford the destructive effect of competition.

We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other.

We are all tied together in a garment of mutual destiny.

Agape means recognition of the fact that all life is interrelated. All humanity is involved in a single process, and all men are brothers. To the degree that I harm my brother, no matter what he is doing to me, to that extent I am harming myself.

We must do jobs we detest because we are part of an organized society, and if everyone did what they wanted to do, the world would come to a standstill.

If we had adhered to the concept of connectedness, then we would not have created nuclear weapons, huge armies and global warming.