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Defective Quotes

On products, people, and how we label flaws

These defective quotes range from business lessons about the true cost of a flawed product to older philosophical claims about women that this page presents only as historical record, not endorsement.

No one knows the cost of a defective product - don't tell me you do. You know the cost of replacing it, but not the cost of a dissatisfied customer.

Quotes by W. Edwards Deming

As regards the individual nature, woman is defective and misbegotten, for the active power of the male seed tends to the production of a perfect likeness in the masculine sex; while the production of a woman comes from defect in...

Quotes by Thomas Aquinas

Human kindness is like a defective tap, the first gush may be impressive but the stream soon dries up.

Quotes by P. D. James

What does it say about us that people who are considered defective are instinctively caring and compassionate?

Quotes by Morley Safer

Ability Quotes

The nanofibrillar scaffolds designed to guide the process of cellular repopulation is an important step towards prolonging life and enhancing the quality of life for patients with advanced heart disease with defective valve.

Quotes by Magdi Yacoub

It is better to do one's own duty, however defective it may be, than to follow the duty of another, however well one may perform it. He who does his duty as his own nature reveals it, never sins.

Quotes by Lao Tzu

DNA sequencing opens vast ethical issues. We shall be able to know who has defective genes. What will it mean when we can be sure we're not all born equal? Worked out, the implications will scare a lot of people....

Quotes by Gregory Benford

Because of the active principle and spirit or universal soul, nothing is so incomplete, defective or imperfect, or, according to common opinion, so completely insignificant that it could not become the source of great events.

Quotes by Giordano Bruno

The Left regards the Constitution as defective and outmoded - in part because it impedes the government's ability to control institutions, like churches and families, which stand between the state and individuals.

Quotes by Gary Bauer

Able Quotes

Aware that his disappointment has its source in a defective education, he looks with anxiety on his other daughters, whose minds, like lovely buds, are beginning to open. Where shall he find a genial soil in which he may place...

Quotes by Emma Willard

Most of the centenarians whom I have been able to see have been so defective mentally that all that can be studied in them are the physical qualities and functions.

Quotes by Elie Metchnikoff

It is high time we found out about this man Cummings. Let us give him every opportunity to show us at once whether he is a genius, a charlatan, or a congenital defective - and get him off our minds.

Quotes by Edna St. Vincent Millay

In the beginning of Roomba, we all took turns answering the support line. Once, a woman called and explained that her robot had a defective motor. I said, 'Send it back. We'll send you a new one.' She said, 'No...

Quotes by Colin Angle

Why should guns be treated different than toasters? If your defective product injures somebody, you're responsible for it.

Quotes by Blake Farenthold

Air Quotes

My analysis was directed toward purely physical conditions, such as defective wiring, presence of lack of air spaces between metal flues and woodwork, etc., and the results were presented in these terms.

Quotes by Benjamin Whorf

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the different uses of defective in these quotes?
A business lesson about product costs, a compassionate observation about people, and a much older philosophical claim about women.
Does this page endorse the older philosophical view mentioned?
No - it's presented purely as a historical record of that idea, not as something this page agrees with.
Is there a quote about compassion?
Yes, one asks why people labeled defective often turn out to be especially caring and compassionate.
Is there a medical or scientific angle?
Yes, one references research into nanofibrillar scaffolds aimed at repairing damaged heart tissue.
What is the business lesson mentioned here?
That the visible cost of a defective product is far smaller than the hidden cost of a dissatisfied customer.

Others turn the word around entirely, noting that people seen as defective are often the most caring, or pointing to real medical research on repairing damaged tissue.