The Best Peter Drucker Quotes

Updated June 14, 2019 1.8k votes 590 voters 59.0k views41 items

List RulesMust be a famous or well-known quote. If a quote is cut off you can hover over the text to see the full quote.

A list of the best Peter Drucker quotes. This list is arranged by which famous Peter Drucker quotes have received the most votes, so only the greatest Peter Drucker quotes are at the top of the list. All the most popular quotes from Peter Drucker should be listed here, but if any were missed you can add more at the end of the list. This list includes notable Peter Drucker quotes on various subjects, many of which are inspirational and thought provoking.

This list answers the questions, "What are the best Peter Drucker quotes?" and "What is the most famous Peter Drucker quote?"

You can see what subjects these historic Peter Drucker quotes fall under displayed to the right of the quote. Be sure to vote so your favorite Peter Drucker saying won't fall to the bottom of the list.

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1
144
9
The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said.
2
136
6
The best way to predict the future is to create it.
3
96
12
There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.
4
87
10
Meetings are a symptom of bad organization. The fewer meetings the better.
5
79
7
Leadership is not magnetic personality--that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not making friends and influencing people --that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person's vision to higher sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.
6
66
5
The successful person places more attention on doing the right thing rather than doing things right.
7
69
12
Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable.

8
55
4
We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn.
9
42
5
Efficiency is doing better what is already being done.
10
52
15
Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.
11
44
11
Culture eats strategy for breakfast
12
39
7
Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes; but no plans.
13
36
4
The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity.
14
33
2
What you have to do and the way you have to do it is incredibly simple. Whether you are willing to do it, that's another matter.
15
40
9
So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work.
16
38
8
Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes.
17
33
5
My greatest strength as a consultant is to be ignorant and ask a few questions.
18
31
4
There is an enormous number of managers who have retired on the job.
19
27
2
Objectives are not fate; they are direction. They are not commands; they are commitments. They do not determine the future; they are means to mobilize the resources and energies of the business for the making of the future.
20
31
6
The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.
21
24
2
Everything requires time. It is the only truly universal condition. All work takes place in time and uses up time. Yet most people take for granted this unique, irreplaceable, and necessary resource. Nothing else, perhaps, distinguishes effective executives as much as their tender loving care of time.
22
25
4
One cannot buy, rent or hire more time. The supply of time is totally inelastic. No matter how high the demand, the supply will not go up. There is no price for it. Time is totally perishable and cannot be stored. Yesterday's time is gone forever, and will never come back. Time is always in short supply. There is no substitute for time. Everything requires time. All work takes place in, and uses up time. Yet most people take for granted this unique, irreplaceable and necessary resource.
23
26
6
Until we can manage TIME, we can manage nothing else.
24
23
4
The honest work of yesterday has lost its social status, its social esteem.
25
23
5
The better a man is the more mistakes he will make for the more things he will try.

The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said.

The best way to predict the future is to create it.

There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.

Meetings are a symptom of bad organization. The fewer meetings the better.

The successful person places more attention on doing the right thing rather than doing things right.

Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable.

We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn.

Efficiency is doing better what is already being done.

Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.

Culture eats strategy for breakfast

Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes; but no plans.

The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity.

What you have to do and the way you have to do it is incredibly simple. Whether you are willing to do it, that's another matter.

So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work.

Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes.

My greatest strength as a consultant is to be ignorant and ask a few questions.

There is an enormous number of managers who have retired on the job.

Objectives are not fate; they are direction. They are not commands; they are commitments. They do not determine the future; they are means to mobilize the resources and energies of the business for the making of the future.

The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.

Until we can manage TIME, we can manage nothing else.

The honest work of yesterday has lost its social status, its social esteem.

The better a man is the more mistakes he will make for the more things he will try.