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)
Questions
There are no foolish questions and no man becomes a fool until he has stopped asking questions.
Charles Steinmetz, US electrical engineer (1865-1923)
He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.
Chinese proverb
The wise man doesn’t give us the right answers; he poses the right questions.
Claude Levi-Strauss, French anthropologist (1908-2009)
Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.
François-Marie Arouet, known as Voltaire, French philosopher (1694-1778)
Millions saw the apple fall but Newton was the one to ask why.
Bernard Baruch, US statesman, businessman (1870-1965)
That is the essence of science: ask an impertinent question, and you are on the way to a pertinent answer.
Jacob Bronowski, British mathematician, scientist (1908-1974)
I keep six honest serving-men (they taught me all I knew): their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who.
Rudyard Kipling, British author, poet (1865-1936)
If you don’t ask ‘why this?’ often enough, somebody will ask ‘why you?’
Tom Hirshfield, US research physicist
Recognition
That little packet of responsibility (job description), rewarded in accordance with a fixed formula (pay wall), and a single reporting relationship (place in the chain of command) is a roadblock on the highway of change.
William Bridges, US engineer, researcher, educator (b. 1934)
We have to switch incentives from careers, level and promotion, to personal reputation, teamwork and challenging assignments. People then need to feel they can influence, rather than just be rewarded by promotion.
Rosabeth Moss Kanter, US academic, management author (b. 1943)
The difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves but how she is treated. I shall always be a flower girl to Professor Higgins because he always treats me as a flower girl and always will; but I know I can be a lady to you because you always treat me like a lady.
Eliza Doolittle, character in ‘Pygmalion’ by George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
People who work sitting down get paid more than people who work standing up.
Frederic Ogden Nash, US humorous writer, poet (1902-1971)
Reflection
To do great work, a man must be very idle as well as very industrious.
Samuel Butler, British author (1835-1902)
Conversation enriches the understanding, but solitude is the school of genius.
Edward Gibbon, British historian (1737-1794)
Some days you must learn a great deal, but you should also have days when you allow what is already in you to swell up and touch everything. If you never let that happen, then you just accumulate facts, and they begin to rattle round inside of you.
Elaine Lobl Konigsburg, US author (b. 1930)
Sit in reverie and watch the changing colour of the waves that break upon the idle seashore of the mind.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, US poet (1807-1882)
It is generally recognised that creativity requires leisure, an absence of rush, time for the mind and imagination to float and wander and roam, time for the individual to descend into the depths of his or her psyche, to be available to barely audible signals rustling for attention. Long periods of time may pass in which nothing seems to be happening. But we know that kind of space must be created if the mind is to leap out of its accustomed ruts, to part from the standard, and generate a leap into the new.
Nathaniel Branden, US psychologist, author (b. 1930)
If you happen to be one of the fretful minority who can do creative work, never force an idea; you’ll abort it if you do. Be patient and you’ll give birth to it when the time is ripe. Learn to wait.
Robert Heinlein, US author (1907-1988)
Allow regular time for silent reflection. Turn inward and digest what has happened. Let the senses rest and grow still.
John Heider, US management author (1936-2010)
Before I compose a piece, I walk around it several times, accompanied by myself.
Erik Satie, French composer (1866-1925)
Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character.
John Russell Lowell, US poet, critic, statesman (1819-1891)
You must learn to be still in the midst of activity and to be vibrantly alive in repose.
Indira Gandhi, Indian Prime Minister (1917-1984)
It would do the world good if every man would compel himself occasionally to be absolutely alone. Most of the world’s progress has come out of such loneliness.
Bruce Barton, US author, advertising executive (1886-1967)
Silence is the element in which great things fashion themselves together, that at length they may emerge, full-formed and majestic, into the daylight of life.
Kahlil Gibran, Lebanese philosopher, author, poet (1883-1931)
Don’t just do it, stand there!
David Williams, British author, presenter (b. 1950)
Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.
Carl Gustav Jung, Swiss psychiatrist, analytical psychologist (1876-1961)
Relationships
Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow.
Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead.
Just walk beside me, and be my friend.
Albert Camus, French/Algerian existentialist author (1913-1960)
Leadership is Relationship.
Benjamin Zander, British conductor, management presenter (b. 1939)
You can’t shake hands with a clenched fist.
Indira Gandhi, Indian Prime Minister (1917-1984)
There is a subterranean emotional economy that passes amongst us all. In every interaction we can make people feel better or worse.