Peter Williams's career in quality assurance in higher education spans nearly 20 years, during which he has witnessed and participated in many changes. His lecture observes and comments on the prominent developments and debates within UK higher education in recent years. Taking as his title an apocryphal quotation from John Ruskin, he proposes eight 'maxims' based on lessons he has learnt. He illustrates these with episodes from his own experience in the Academic Audit Unit, the Higher Education Quality Council and the Quality Assurance Agency. Peter Williams describes an activity which has, over the years and in the face of considerable odds, grown and matured into an important part of higher education, and which is now faced with new and increasingly challenging public expectations that threaten to change the very nature of higher education. Peter Williams spoke at a seminar in the regular series organised by the Centre for Higher Education Studies (CHES) at the Institute of Education, University of London. CHES aims to be a leading centre of its kind, and works to further the development of research and scholarship into higher education. It also has an extensive consultancy arm. The Co-Directors of CHES are Professor Sir David Watson and Dr Paul Temple.