The Proverbs of Total Quality Management: Recharting the Path to Quality Improvement in the Public Sector

A fact about proverbs that greatly enhances their quotability is that they almost always occur in mutually contradictory pairs. "Look before you leap!"-but "He who hesitates is lost." This is both a convenience and a serious defect-depending on the use to which one wishes to put the proverbs in question. If it is a matter of rationalizing behavior that has already taken place or justifying action that has already been decided upon, proverbs are ideal. Since one is never at a loss to find one that will prove a point-or the precisely contradictory point, for that matterthey are a great help in persuasion, political debate, and all forms of rhetoric. -Herbert Simon (1946, p. 53)