W. Edwards Deming Quotes

Building a better life for every child is a lot harder than becoming a world champion. Both goals take dedication and commitment.

What people want is their basic needs. So I'm trying to help people ensure their basic need: that means food security, healthcare, education, and job opportunity and a better life.

We want you to find that thing that will make your life better.

All I wanted was to say honestly to people: 'Have a look at yourselves and see how bad and dreary your lives are!' The important thing is that people should realize that, for when they do, they will most certainly create another and better life for themselves. I will not live to see it, but I know that it will be quite different, quite unlike our present life. And so long as this different life does not exist, I shall go on saying to people again and again: 'Please, understand that your life is bad and dreary!'

To live a better life,--this surely can be done.

Creating and integrating an empowering personal mission statement is one of the most important investments we can make.

There is no hope of success for the person who does not have a central purpose, or definite goal at which to aim.

The greatest missile in the world is useless ... unless it's targeted. A torpedo is adrift unless it has someplace to go. An arrow is pointless unless it hits something. So it's important for kids--for everyone, even if you fail at first--to target something and head in that direction. With all your might.

Let every action aim solely at the common good.

There is a difference between standard of living and quality of life. Quality of life is more important.

What have you done for YOURSELF this year to create a better life?

If people are hungry, ill-clad, unsheltered or diseased, nothing is so important as to remedy their condition.

There is one quality more important than know-how.... This is know-how by which we determine not only how to accomplish our purposes, but what our purposes are to be.

We cannot simply look to austerity as a strategy and it is incredibly important that the Greek people see improvements in their daily lives so that they can carry with them the hope that their lives will get better.

Our vision is not just of economic growth, but also of a growth which would improve the life of the common man.

It is important that an aim never be defined in terms of activity or methods. It must always relate directly to how life is better for everyone. . . . The aim of the system must be clear to everyone in the system. The aim must include plans for the future. The aim is a value judgment.

Ain't nothin' wrong with the aim, just gotta change the target.

Dreams are so important. You need to have big goals and expect a lot of yourself but you have to enjoy the ride too.

A dozen times a day we come to a fork in the road and must decide which way we will go. It is important to get our ultimate objectives clearly in mind so that we do not become distracted at each fork in the road by the irrelevant questions: Which is the easier or more pleasant way? Or, Which way are others going?

As long as we are enjoying ourselves, that's the most important thing

Social bonds have given way under the collapse of social protections and the attack on the welfare state. Moreover, all solutions to socially produced problems are now relegated to the mantra of individual solutions.

My diary entries allow me to keep track of all the things I would like to change about my life.

... if fiction does not show us a better life than reality, what is the good of it?

Without a mission statement, you may get to the top of the ladder and then realize it was leaning against the wrong building!

I've always been about setting goals. Then when I had a near death experience at nineteen, it made it even more important to strive to achieve certain things.