A Quote by W. Edwards Deming

If you do not know how to ask the right question, you discover nothing.

W. Edwards Deming

Quote Topics

Ask Discover How Know Know How Nothing Question Right

Quote Author

W. Edwards Deming
American - Scientist
October 14, 1900 - December 20, 1993

Do not ask the stones or the trees how to live, they can not tell you ; they do not have tongues; do not ask the wise man how to live for, if he knows , he will know he cannot tell you; if you would learn how to live , do not ask the question; its answer is not in the question but in the answer, which is not in words; do not ask how to live, but, instead, proceed to do so.

John Norman

I often suggest that my students ask themselves the simple question: Do I know how to live? Do I know how to eat? How much to sleep? How to take care of my body? How to relate to other people? ... Life is the real teacher, and the curriculum is all set up. The question is: are there any students?

Larry Rosenberg

If you don't ask the right questions, I can't give you the answers, and if you don't know the right question to ask, you're not ready for the answers

Ed Parker

The most horrible question students ask: 'How do you paint copper?' 'How do you paint flesh or glass?' You paint everything the same way: Right color, right value, in right spot. There are no prescriptions.

Sergei Bongart

If you ask the wrong question, of course, you get the wrong answer. We find in design it's much more important and difficult to ask the right question. Once you do that, the right answer becomes obvious.

Amory Lovins

We don't have a right to ask whether we're going to succeed or not. The only question we have a right to ask is what's the right thing to do? What does this earth require of us if we want to continue to live on it?

Wendell Berry

It is not enough for me to ask question; I want to know how to answer the one question that seems to encompass everything I face: What am I here for?

Abraham Joshua Heschel

One finds oneself saying: 'I know the right question, but ... this is not exactly the right time to ask it.'

Dan Rather

And one day we must ask the question, "Why are there forty million poor people in America?" And when you begin to ask that question, you are raising questions about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth. When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

In short, we needed to shift our thinking and teaching about values-driven leadership from asking the question "What is the right thing to do?" to asking and answering the question "Once I know what I believe is right, how do I get it done?"

Mary C. Gentile

He gives me a kiss that barely touches my lips – it means nothing or everything. After he’s gone, I think, Happy birthday to me. Jack says, ‘That was the guy?’ ‘That was him.’ Jake shakes his head. ‘What?’ ‘He’s not for you,’ he says. I say, ‘How do you know?’ but what I mean is, How do you know? ‘He’s like Ashley Wilkes,’ he says. ‘Any one of these guys is Rhett-ier than he is.’ Again, I ask my benignly inflected, ‘How do you know?’ ‘How do I know?’ he says, tackling me into a bear hug. ‘How do I know? I know, that’s how I know.

Melissa Bank

It's important to be able to simply ask the questions. Every single advance in science comes about because of courage to ask a question, an outrageous question. Like "Can a large heavy metal object fly if it goes fast enough with the right design?" People's worldviews are changed when they see that something unbelievable is possible. Airplane flight is now taken for granted. And so all wonderful advances start with an outrageous question.

Lynne McTaggart

Maybe this is not a come-down-from-the-ledge story. But I tell it with the thought that the woman on the ledge will ask herself a question, the question that occurred to that man in Bogota. He wondered how we know that what happens to us isn't good?

Amy Hempel

If you want to find what God put you here to do, ask yourself three questions. First question: What comes easy to you but harder to other people? The second question is: What would you do for years and never have to get paid for it? Third, ask yourself: How can you be of service?

Farrah Gray

When I meet with most entrepreneurial teams, I ask them a simple question: How do you know that you're making progress? Most of them really can't answer that question.