W. Edwards Deming Quotes

Most of my conscious efforts have ended in embarrassing failure.

It's not a field, I think, for people who need to have success every day: if you can't live with a nightly sort of disaster, you should get out. I wouldn't describe myself as lacking in confidence, but I would just say that the ghosts you chase you never catch.

I am still where I started. I am still struggling. In fact, the struggle has only got bigger. I always try to go beyond my means, and this where the struggle comes in.

I assumed no one would ever listen to my music, and for quite a lot of years, I was right.

From my birth I have aspired like the eagle - but unlike the eagle, my wings have failed. . . . Congratulate me then that I have found a fitting scope for my powers.

I should be a success and I'm not and other people- younger people- are. Younger people than me are on TV and getting their lives in order. I'm still a nobody. When am I going to not be a nobody?

Because your own strength is unequal to a task, do not assume it is beyond the powers of man.

I always think I'm lazy, maybe I could do better, I could make more effort and I always have the feeling that there is a glass wall that I cannot get through. But maybe when I get through, then it's over.

I tried, it was hard, I quit, the end. Story of my life.

We live in a time when people give up too easy.

Everyone tried with me. And everytime, it felt like the whole point of life was to see if trying was ever enough.

All I wanted to do was be a hero... But do I ever get to be a hero? All I ever get to be is the stupid goat!" "Don't be discouraged, Charlie Brown... In this life we live, there are always some bitter pills to be swallowed..." "If it's all the same with you, I'd rather not renew my perscription!

Why did I keep hitching myself to dreams as big as that Montana sky? I was like Rooster Jim's chickens, with no way to fly that high.

Just because people tell you it can't be done, that doesn't necessarily mean that it can't be done. It just means that they can't do it.

All my life, I've been trying to make a hole-in-one. The closest I've come is a bogey.

You still think we can go out there, and we can all run the mile in four minutes, you know, your mind still thinks that, but then you go out and actually try to do it, it's kind of scary.

Being bad at stuff is hard, and we all deal with it every day because we're all bad at stuff.

After hundreds of auditions and nothing, you're sitting home and wondering, 'What am I doing?'

I've been telling people 'I'm going to go to California, and I'm going to be a big star' since the womb, but lately it was immediately followed by, 'Would you like soup or salad with that?'

The longing to produce great inspirations didn't produce anything but more longing.

I remember when I was on 'Saturday Night Live' my first year, and I wasn't getting much. I was down; I was ready to quit.

I've definitely had ideas and plans that sometimes exceed my means and capabilities.

I'm talking to anyone who has been dumped - have not gotten the job you really wanted or have received those horrible rejection letters from grad school. You know, the disappointment of losing, or not getting something you badly want. When that happens, show what you are made of.

You never accomplish everything you want to accomplish.

We are all musicians, and we're not really good musicians. But we have this gracious gift that has been bestowed on us, and we don't want to disappoint. So I guess our biggest fear would be, just giving up.