W. Edwards Deming, 20th century American statistician and engineer who is famous for his contributions to lean manufacturing and total quality management. (Deming’s philosophy is well worth studying.)

“If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.”

Alexis de Tocqueville, 19th century French political thinker and historian:

“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.”

Alexander Fraser Tytler, 18th century British lawyer and writer:

“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.”

Pericles, statesman, orator, and general during the Golden Age of Athens:

“Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn’t mean politics won’t take an interest in you.”

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States of America:

“In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.”

Ron Paul, 10-term American Congressman from Texas and 2008 US Presidential Candidate:

“No matter how well intentioned, an authoritarian government always abuses its powers.”

Anais Nin, French author:

“When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow.”

Confucius, early Chinese moral and political philosopher:

“To put the world right in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right.”

John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States:

“We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”

John Adams, 2nd President of the United States of America:

“There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.”

Jean de la Bruyere, 17th century French essayist:

“When a work lifts your spirits and inspires bold and noble thoughts in you, do not look for any other standard to judge by: the work is good, the product of a master craftsman.”

Louis Nizer, trial lawyer, artist, lecturer, and advisor:

“A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman; but a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist.”

Émile Zola, 19th century French writer and naturalist:

“There are two men inside the artist, the poet and the craftsman. One is born a poet. One becomes a craftsman.”