quotations about quality
The concept and vocabulary of quality are elusive. Different people interpret quality differently. Few can define quality in measurable terms that can be operationalized. When asked what differentiates their product or service, the banker will answer "service," the health care worker will answer "quality health care," the hotel or restaurant employee will answer "customer satisfaction," and the manufacturer will simply answer "quality product." When pressed to provide a specific definition and measurement, few can do so. There is an old maxim in management which says, "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it," and so it is with quality. If the strategic management system and the competitive advantage are to be based on quality, every member of the organization should be clear about its concept, definition, and measurement as it applies to his or her job.
JOEL E. ROSS & SUSAN PERRY
Total Quality Management: Text, Cases, and Readings, Third Edition
To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour.
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
Walden
He always reflects concerning the quality, and not the quantity, of his life. As soon as there are many events in his life that give him trouble and disturb his peace of mind, he sets himself free.
LUCIUS ANNAEUS SENECA
Moral letters to Lucilius
One shining quality lends a lustre to another, or hides some glaring defect.
WILLIAM HAZLITT
Complete Works
All lives are filled with confrontations ... how we handle those confrontations, determines the quality of our day and ultimately the quality of our lives.
TONY BLAUER
Quotations for Martial Artists
Quality begins on the inside ... and then works its way out.
BOB MOAWAD
attributed, 100 Ways to Develop Your Mind
To be of noble parentage, and not to be endowed with noble qualities, is rather a defamation than a glory.
ROBERT DODSLEY
attributed, Day's Collacon
Some people are all quality; you would think they were made up of nothing but title and genealogy; the stamp of dignity defaces in them the very character of humanity, and transports them to such a degree of haughtiness, that they reckon it below them either to exercise good-nature or good manners.
L'ESTRANGE
attributed, Day's Collacon
Men, like plants, have secret qualities which are left to time and circumstances to discover.
ALFONSO MARIA DA LIGUORI
attributed, Day's Collacon
Admiration for a quality or an art can be so strong that it deters us from striving to possess it.
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
Mixed Opinions and Maxims
Who can give qualities to men, when they have not brought the germ with them into the world?
G. FORSTER
attributed, Day's Collacon
Such is the general disguise men wear, that their good qualities commonly appear at first, and their bad ones are discovered by degrees.
RICHARD GREEN PARKER
Aids to English Composition
People of quality know everything without ever having learned anything.
MOLIERE
The Ridiculous Young Ladies
It is the quality of the moment, not the number of days, or events, or of actors, that imports.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
speech at the Masonic Temple in Boston, January 1842