Project Management Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old project management quotes, project management sayings, and project management proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end. Aristotle
Trying to manage a project without project management is like trying to play a football game without a game plan. K. Tate
It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out nor more doubtful of success nor more dangerous to handle than to initiate a new order of things. Machiavelli
Project management can … be defined as a way of developing structure in a complex project, where the independent variables of time, cost, resources and human behaviour come together. Rory Burke
Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood make big plans, aim high in hope and work. David Burnham
A project without a critical path is like a ship without a rudder. D. Meyer
Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed. Peter Drucker
It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time. Winston Churchill
Management is, above all, a practice where art, science, and craft meet. Henry Mintzberg
Plans are worthless. Planning is essential. Dwight D. Eisenhower
Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work in hand. The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus. Alexander Graham Bell
Organization charts and fancy titles count for next to nothing. Colin Powell
Operations keeps the lights on, strategy provides a light at the end of the tunnel, but project management is the train engine that moves the organization forward. Joy Gumz
For every hour of brains, you will be charged three hours. The other two hours go to management and project management, which is to say they are wasted. Robert X. Cringely
To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others. Tony Robbins
For a project plan to be effective it must equally address the parameters of ‘activity time' and ‘activity logic'. This logical relationship is required to model the effect schedule variance will have down stream in the project. Rory Burke
A well-constructed project management workshop should give people a solid foundation to build on.  Bentley & Borman
Project management can be defined as a way of developing structure in a complex project, where the independent variables of time, cost, resources and human behavior come together. Rory Burke
Operations keep the lights on, strategy provides the light at the end of the tunnel, but project management is the train engine that moves the organization forward. Joy Gumz
The major reason for setting a goal is for what it makes of you to accomplish it. What it makes of you will always be the far greater value than what you get. Jim Rohn
Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work. Peter Drucker
Project management is the art of creating the illusion that any outcome is the result of a series of predetermined, deliberate acts when, in fact, it was dumb luck. Harold Kerzner
Have a good plan, Execute it violently, Do it today. General Douglas McArthur
No matter how good the team or how efficient the methodology, if we're not solving the right problem, the project fails. Woody Williams
You can't keep it all in your head. Project control tools are an absolute necessity for the control of large projects. Louis Fried
A good plan can help with risk analyses but it will never guarantee the smooth running of the project. Bentley and Borman
A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow. Proverb
The world does not need a better definition of issues, or better planning or project management. It needs the issues and the plans to have more of an impact, which is the promise of engagement. Peter Block
Our goal is to leverage what is already out in the field in terms of partners, but then hire in project management capability and a bit of technical capability. Kevin Rollins
On planning – What is truth today may be falsehood tomorrow. Never confuse your plan with truth. Woody Williams