Your workplace is a vibrant community, where safety takes center stage. And quotes about safety, while being entertaining for your teams, can also guide your risk prevention initiatives.
Take a look at the below 20 safety quotes that not only educate but inspire, offering practical advice – from field training to wokrplace safety software – to reinforce your company’s commitment to a culture of safety.
Contents:
Fluix’s Featured Safety Quotes
We’d like to start this list with one of our favorite safety quotes.
“A culture of safety is not a concept. It is a way of life.”
It belongs to James David Power III, the founder of the data analytics firm J.D. Power and Associates, but we sign under each word.
Having served the safety-critical industries like construction, energy and aviation for a decade, we can confidently say that safety policies that exist on paper only don’t work. How you execute them is what matters.
An example, one of our clients, Panorama Helicopters, improved their safety management with the help of electronic flight bags and automated workflows in Fluix.
And here is a fun quote for you by Patrick Cote, their Safety Officer & Training Pilot.
“Being a paperless company in 2019 is the norm – companies using paper in the aviation industry are thought of as dinosaurs.”
Safety Quotes About Education
The first set of employee safety quotes features sayings that support the critical role of education in workplace safety initiatives.
“You don’t need to know the whole alphabet of safety. The A, B, C of it will save you if you follow it: Always Be Careful.”
Attributed to the Colorado School of Mines Magazine, this quote emphasizes the importance of keeping safety simple while remaining vigilant. You can use this as a quick-reference reminder for your team.
“The future of the safety movement is not so much dependent upon the invention of safety devices as on the improvement of methods of educating people to the ideal of caution and safety.”
Walter Dill Scott, the president of Northwestern University, predicted the ongoing importance of safety education in this quote from 1921.
Read more: Read more: Understanding the definition of safety protocols, and how to write them better
Safety Quotes About Culture and Theory
These quotations on safety highlight the need for a strong safety culture and provide insight into some of the early workplace safety theories that still hold true today.
We suggest you keep these inspirational safety messages in mind next time you counsel your teams about prevention.
“Safety applies with equal force to the individual, to the family, to the employer, to the state, the nation and to international affairs. Safety, in its widest sense, concerns the happiness, contentment and freedom of mankind.”
William M. Jeffers, the former president of Union Pacific Railroad Co., discussed the responsibility we share to protect one another as individuals and institutions in this 1946 quote.
“The safety of the people should be the highest law.”
Marcus Tullius Cicero was a statesman and lawyer in ancient Rome. His quote shows the foundational importance of safety in the context of human existence.
“Safety work is today recognized as an economic necessity. It is the study of the right way to do things.”
Robert W. Campbell, the first president of the National Safety Council, recognized the importance of doing things the right way to keep everyone safe. To understand what works and what doesn’t in your unique workspace, you need smart tools to gather safety data, document incidents and keep track of other safety metrics.
“Tomorrow — your reward for working safely today.”
This pearl of wisdom is from Robert Pelton, author of “The World’s Most Dangerous Places.” As a journalist, Pelton has spent time with ground forces in more than 40 global conflicts, including battles in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Liberia.
“No job is so important and no service so urgent we cannot take time to perform our work safely.”
This safety quote comes from the 1939 AT&T Bell Safety System Creed, and it’s still relevant today.
“There’s no better policy in society than pursuing the health and safety of its people.”
Before Ralph Nader ran for president, he was a staunch consumer safety advocate and author of books such as “Unsafe at Any Speed,” which is about the auto industry.
“Concern for man and his safety must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavors.”
Albert Einstein is undoubtedly one of our nation’s foremost thinkers. As we continue to innovate at an unimagined speed, safety remains the utmost priority.
“A culture of safety is a journey, not a destination, it requires our continuing diligence.”
This safety quote comes from Terry J. Moulton. He is chief of military and veteran service at TriWest Healthcare Alliance and a long-time advocate for workplace safety in the hospital and healthcare industry.
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Safety Strategies
The following workplace safety quotes offer actionable advice and tools you can implement on your own job site.
“Ask the people who work in the warehouse to start thinking about safety, and on a regular, periodic basis, review and discuss how they might work better. I encourage people to put a meeting on a calendar, once a month, at least to come together for an hour or 90 minutes to discuss ideas for improvement.”
This recommendation was written by Joseph Flahiff, author of “Being Agile in a Waterfall World: A practical guide for complex organizations.”
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
This lesson from one of the nation’s founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, still applies in the modern workplace.
“…We need to stay vigilant. It’s how we prepare for threats and how we direct our resources that will ensure the safety of our people.”
These words of advice come from Larry Delfiner, a professional business resiliency director who focuses on the impact of safety.
“I’ve personally met up with quite a few legless, armless and other badly messed-up folks. There’s a whole lot of mighty serious accident contemplation going on in our hospitals. My observations have taught me that it is much better to think about accidents before they happen than to brood on them afterward. … Personally, I’d rather be late for dinner tonight here than to be on time for breakfast in the next world in the morning. Haste makes waste of a lot of good human material.”
Irvin S. Cobb is an author and journalist who wrote for Pulitzer’s New York World paper in the early 1900s as the highest-paid staff writer in the U.S. at that time. This quote notes the critical importance of slowing down for safety reasons.
“Orientation is a place where employees should learn about their stop-work authority. Any worker should be able to stop work if they feel there is a danger to continuing operations.”
Sean Lucas, a risk control safety professional with Travelers Insurance, discusses the importance of emphasizing the company’s culture of safety when training new employees.
“What matters in a workplace, what helps an employer if you’ve got a unionized workforce is if your shop stewards know the rules of the game, if your safety reps are taught to examine situations to make sure the workplace is safer. Better informed delegates better workplace safety saves companies money. Unions are very good at safety. We are good at teaching delegates how to resolve disputes.”
In this quote, Bill Shorten, the minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme of Australia, discusses aligning with unions to implement safety initiatives.
Read more: Read more: Best practices for effective safety walks
Impact of Work Injuries
These safe work environment quotes touch on the often devastating effects of job site accidents.
“Work injuries and illnesses can affect every aspect of life for workers and their families.”
This quote from the Maine Department of Labor highlights the far-reaching effects of workplace injuries.
“The economic waste resulting from carelessness is appalling, but anyone who stops for a moment to consider the sorrow and desolation which is brought into thousands of lives each year by utter thoughtlessness must feel a new resolve to make a habit of “Safety First.”
W. C. Durant, the president of General Motors, addresses the human cost of carelessness in this 1930 quote.
“How employees manage health and safety in the workplace or how labor rights are respected are issues important for employees and investors alike. Companies can, and should, do good right alongside doing well.”
Tim Smith, an expert in occupational safety across industries and founder of Leading Indicators, Inc., discusses the influence of safety metrics on investor relations.
“If you put good people in bad systems, you get bad results. You have to water the flowers you want to grow.”
Stephen Covey, the author of “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” discusses the importance of fostering a culture of growth and education in the workplace to create healthy and safe work environment
Read more: Read more: How to minimize workplace risks with the Safety Pyramid framework
And here is the last, extra quote, that we also love so can’t but mention.
“Technology is moving at a much faster clip than our laws can keep up with.”
Deborah Hersman, former president and CEO of the National Safety Council, advocated for caution when implementing new innovations in a 2015 interview. While she was addressing the lack of legislation about drivers wearing smartphones behind the wheel, this advice can also apply to the speed at which we introduce new tech at work.
Improving Your Workplace Safety with Fluix
Many of the above safety quotes align with the need for streamlined safety management.
Fluix’s automated workflows, safety checklists, and fast approvals can help you with this.
By filling in customizable forms, your teams can identify and document safety risks. By analyzing this data, you can spot the patterns and improve your preventive action. By storing all this info in one place, you’re always ready for regulatory checks.
