It's common to misquote famous quotes. The #NoEstimates advocates love to use a Deming quote
It is wrong to suppose that if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it – a costly myth.
This is used in support of the fallacy that estimates aren't needed to make decisions in the presence of uncertanty. They are for, all the reasons listed in the 100's of blog posts here and other places.
But more important is the use and misuse of quotes without checking on the validity of the quote. This too seems common among those quoting without confirmation, attribution, or establishing the proper domain and context of the quote. It's just sloppy thinking at best and willful ignorance at worst.
I spent the week speaking at the College of Performance Management conference where government and industry come together to work on the issues of cost, schedule, and technical performance management process improvement needed to increase the probability of program success.
This community of program controls, cost analyst, earned value managers and program managers is accountable for providing information to decision makers on enterprise and complex projects and programs. It would be unheard of to make statement that aren't based on well researched background and principles. The antithesis of the rogue agilist currently populating the #NoEstimates community, spending other people's money (which I doubt takes place on anything but de minimis projects) with no consideration for the principles of managerial finance.
To learn more about the Deming quote start here and check for yourself when you hear or read any quote that doesn't make sense in practice. It's likely wrong, misquoted, misattributed, or taken out of context.