C. Northcote Parkinson Quotes
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The Law of Triviality... briefly stated, it means that the time spent on any item of the agenda will be in inverse proportion to the sum involved.
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Parkinson's Law is a purely scientific discovery, inapplicable except in theory to the politics of the day. It is not the business of the botanist to eradicate the weeds. Enough for him if he can tell us just how fast they grow.
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No king or minister could have instructed Newton to discover the law of gravity, for they did not know and could not know that there was such a law to discover. No Treasury official told Fleming to discover penicillin. Nor was Rutherford instructed to split the atom by a certain date.
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The chief product of an automated society is a widespread and deepening sense of boredom.
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The void created by the failure to communicate is soon filled with poison, drivel and misrepresentation.
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It is now well known, however, that men enter local politics solely as a result of being unhappily married.
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Perfection of planning is a symptom of decay. During a period of exciting discovery or progress, there is no time to plan the perfect headquarters.
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It is the busiest man who has time to spare.
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Make the people sovereign and the poor will use the machinery of government to dispossess the rich.
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The man whose life is devoted to paperwork has lost the initiative. He is dealing with things that are brought to his notice, having ceased to notice anything for himself.
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Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. General recognition of this fact is shown in the proverbial phrase "It is the busiest man who has time to spare."
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The matters most debated in a deliberative body tend to be the minor ones where everybody understands the issues.
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The basic quality for the diplomat is not intelligence but loyalty.
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The nice thing about standards is, there are so many to choose from. Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.
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Parkinson's Fourth Law: The number of people in any working group tends to increase regardless of the amount of work to be done.
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Parkinson's First Law: Work expands to fill the time available.
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When any organizational entity expands beyond 21 members, the real power will be in some smaller body.
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In the foundation and development of a successful enterprise there must be a single-minded pursuit of financial profit.
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The man who is denied the opportunity of taking decisions of importance begins to regard as important the decisions he is allowed to take. He becomes fussy about filing, keen on seeing that pencils are sharpened, eager to ensure that the windows are open (or shut) and apt to use two or three different-colored inks.
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Administrators make work for each other so that they can multiply the number of their subordinates and enhance their prestige.
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The smaller the function, the greater the management.
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People of great ability do not emerge, as a rule, from the happiest background. So far as my own observation goes, I would conclude that ability, although hereditary, is improved by an early measure of adversity and improved again by a later measure of success.
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Delay is the deadliest form of denial.
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Perfection of planned layout is achieved only by institutions on the point of collapse.
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Expenditures rise to meet income.
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Expenditure rises to meet income.
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The vacuum created by a failure to communicate will quickly be filled with rumor, misrepresentations, drivel, and poison.
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The man who is denied the opportunity of taking decisions of importance begins to regard as important the decisions he is allowed to take.
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Expansion means complexity and complexity decay.
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A committee is organic rather than mechanical in its nature: it is not a structure but a plant. It takes root and grows, it flowers, wilts, and dies, scattering the seed from which other committees will bloom in their turn.
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C. Northcote Parkinson
- Born: July 30, 1909
- Died: March 9, 1993
- Occupation: Naval historian
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