“Uncontrolled variation is the enemy of quality.”

—  W. Edwards Deming

Attributed to Edward Deming (1980) in: Chang W. Kang, Paul H. Kvam (2012) Basic Statistical Tools for Improving Quality. p. 19

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Uncontrolled variation is the enemy of quality." by W. Edwards Deming?
W. Edwards Deming photo
W. Edwards Deming 33
American professor, author, and consultant 1900–1993

Related quotes

Nagarjuna photo

“Even if you seek to harm an enemy,
You should remove your own defects and cultivate good qualities.
Through that you will help yourself,
And the enemy will be displeased.”

Nagarjuna (150–250) Indian philosopher

§ 132
Major attributed works, Ratnāvalī (Precious Garland)

H.L. Mencken photo

“Socialism, Puritanism, Philistinism, Christianity—he saw them all as allotropic forms of democracy, as variations upon the endless struggle of quantity against quality, of the weak and timorous against the strong and enterprising, of the botched against the fit.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

1940s–present, Introduction to Nietzsche's The Antichrist

Hans Reichenbach photo

“If E1 is the cause of E2, then a small variation (a mark) in E1 is associated with a small variation in E2, whereas small variations in E2 are not associated with variations in E1. If we wish to express even more clearly that this concept does not contain the concept of temporal order, we can express it in the following form, where events that show a slight variation are designated E*: E1E2, E1*E2*, E1E2* and never the combination E1*E2.”

Hans Reichenbach (1891–1953) American philosopher

The Philosophy of Space and Time (1928, tr. 1957)

Rachel Cohn photo

“It's bullshit to think of friendship and romance as being different. They're not. They're just variations of the same love. Variations of the same desire to be close.”

Rachel Cohn (1968) American writer

Source: Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List

David Levithan photo

“It's bullshit to think of friendship and romance as being different. They're not. They're just variations of the same love. Variations of the same desire to be close.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Variant: It's b******* to think of friendship and romance being different. They're not. They're just variations of the same love. Variatons of the same desire to be close.
Source: Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List

“Variation is clearly nature's way.”

Jaime Jackson (1947) Horse hoof care professional

The Natural Horse (1997)

“[A]lthough species may be discrete, they have no immutable essence. Variation is the raw material of evolutionary change. It represents the fundamental reality of nature, not an accident about a created norm. Variation is primary; essences are illusory. Species must be defined as ranges of irreducible variation.”

Stephen Jay Gould book The Flamingo's Smile

"Of Wasps and WASPs", p. 160
The Flamingo's Smile (1985)

William Saroyan photo

“Remember that every man is a variation of yourself”

William Saroyan (1908–1981) American writer
Arthur Miller photo

“Tragedy enlightens — and it must, in that it points the heroic finger at the enemy of man's freedom. The thrust for freedom is the quality in tragedy which exalts. The revolutionary questioning of the stable environment is what terrifies.”

Arthur Miller (1915–2005) playwright from the United States

Tragedy and the Common Man (1949)
Context: The tragic right is a condition of life, a condition in which the human personality is able to flower and realize itself. The wrong is the condition which suppresses man, perverts the flowing out of his love and creative instinct. Tragedy enlightens — and it must, in that it points the heroic finger at the enemy of man's freedom. The thrust for freedom is the quality in tragedy which exalts. The revolutionary questioning of the stable environment is what terrifies.

Jeannette Walls photo

“You should never hate anyone, even your worst enemies. Everyone has something good about them. You have to find the redeeming quality and love the person for that.”

Jeannette Walls book The Glass Castle

Source: The Glass Castle

Related topics