C. Northcote Parkinson
C. Northcote Parkinson
Cyril Northcote Parkinsonwas a British naval historian and author of some 60 books, the most famous of which was his best-seller Parkinson's Law, which led him to be also considered as an important scholar in public administration and management...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionHistorian
Date of Birth30 June 1909
weed law discovery
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.
nice standards available
The nice thing about standards is, there are so many to choose from. Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.
education book mind
The mind reels at the multiplication of books intended to justify the author's promotion from assistant to associate professor.
mean focus decay
Expansion means complexity and complexity decay.
men funny-marriage married
It is now well known, however, that men enter local politics solely as a result of being unhappily married.
imagination firsts essentials
Imagination is essential and it comes first, for without imagination we are aimless.
government people use
Make the people sovereign and the poor will use the machinery of government to dispossess the rich.
men life-is initiative
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.
loyalty quality diplomats
The basic quality for the diplomat is not intelligence but loyalty.
work law numbers
Parkinson's Fourth Law: The number of people in any working group tends to increase regardless of the amount of work to be done.
decision important delay
If there is a way to delay an important decision, the good bureaucracy, public or private, will find it.
rumor poison vacuums
The vacuum created by a failure to communicate will quickly be filled with rumor, misrepresentations, drivel, and poison.
adversity people observation
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.
perfection institutions collapse
Perfection of planned layout is achieved only by institutions on the point of collapse.