The job of a project manager can be overwhelming. We have to keep an eye on a whole load of things, take up responsibilities, communicate with stakeholders, and inspire the team. In the constant pursuit of deadlines, it is easy to lose focus and motivation, when things don’t go our way. However, we can find some encouragement in project management quotes. 

Everyone has their own source of inspiration. Some people watch emotional videos, others talk to their mentors or read books. We like to learn from the greatest minds. Their famous quotes on management are a powerful tool to boost up your spirit. The experience and wisdom of successful leaders will give you the motivation to move on with the most challenging projects. 

Here we have collected 33 great manager quotes that will help you to stay positive and focussed. You’ll find quotations about management, success and failure, teamwork, productivity, planning communication, and many other areas related to our job.

Best Project Management quotes 

1. “Being a Project Manager is like being an artist, you have the different colored process streams combining into a work of art.” — Greg Cimmarrusti, Infor.
2. “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, Project Auditors.
3. “No matter how good the team or how efficient the methodology, if we’re not solving the right problem, the project fails.” – Woody Williams, w3src Consulting
4. “Running a project without a work breakdown structure is like going to a strange land without a road map” – J Phillips, PMP, writer.
5. “When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.” — Confucius
6. “Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all.” – Peter Drucker, management consultant, educator, and author.
7. “Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it.” — Charles Swindoll, Christian pastor
8. “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” — Theodore Roosevelt
9. “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.” — Bill Cosby, actor
10. “Fit no stereotypes. Don’t chase the latest management fads. The situation dictates which approach best accomplishes the team’s mission.” — Colin Powell, American politician
11. “Quality means doing it right when no one is looking” – Henry Ford
12. “Have a good plan, Execute it violently, Do it today” – General Douglas McArthur
13. “Everyone has a plan: until they get punched in the face.” — Mike Tyson
14. “Plans are worthless. Planning is essential.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower
15. “Planning is an unnatural process; it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression” – Sir John Harvey-Jones, Imperial Chemical Industries
16. “Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning.” – Thomas Edison
17. “No major project is ever installed on time, within budget, with the same staff that started it.” — Edwards, Butler, Hill and Russell, authors of People Rules for Rocket Scientists
18. “Data is like garbage. You’d better know what you are going to do with it before you collect it.” — Mark Twain
19. “The price of inaction is far greater than the cost of making a mistake.” — Meister Eckhart
20. "The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure." — Sven Goran Eriksson, Swedish football manage
21. "There are no failures - just experiences and your reactions to them." — Tom Krause, Kraus Bell Group
22. "It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure." — Bill Gates
23. “One of the true tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.” — Arnold Glasow, humorist and businessman
24. “The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.” — Kenneth Blanchard, author of The One Minute Manager
25. "Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want to be done because he wants to do it." — Dwight D. Eisenhower 
26. “Get the right people. Then no matter what all else you might do wrong after that, the people will save you. That’s what management is all about.” – Tom DeMarco, The Atlantic Systems Guild
27. “Rewards and motivation are an oil change for project engines. Do it regularly and often.” – Woody Williams, w3src Consulting
28. “The conventional definition of management is getting work done through people, but real management is developing people through work.” — Agha Hasan Abedi, banker
29. "Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships." — Michael Jordan
30. “You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can’t get them across, your ideas won’t get you anywhere.” – Lee Iacocca, Ford
31. “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, public speaker, life coach.
32. “In teamwork, silence isn’t golden, it’s deadly.” — Mark Sanborn, Sanborn & Associates
33. “Managing to have a sense of humor makes it a lot easier to manage people.” — Steve Wilson, musician.