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Learning is not compulsory; it's voluntary. Improvement is not compulsory; it's voluntary. But to survive, we must learn.

— W. Edwards Deming Deming: The Way We Knew Him (1995)

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Notes from Wikiquote

Note: This quote is often cited as “Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival.”

More quotes by W. Edwards Deming

Improve constantly and forever the system of production and service, to improve quality and productivity, and thus constantly decrease costs.

Out Of The Crisis (1982)

Quality comes not from inspection, but from improvement of the production process.

Out Of The Crisis (1982)

Uncontrolled variation is the enemy of quality.

to Edward Deming (1980)

It is wrong to suppose that if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it – a costly myth.

Without data, you're just another person with an opinion.

All W. Edwards Deming quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: W. Edwards Deming (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.