38+ C. Northcote Parkinson Quotes On Education, Organizational And Satire

C. Northcote Parkinson was a British historian and naval historian best known for his book, Parkinson's Law. He is best remembered for his law, which states that "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion," which is often used to describe the phenomenon of bureaucracy. He also wrote a number of books on naval history, including the well-known The Rise and Fall of the British Navy. Following is our collection on famous quotes by C. Northcote Parkinson on life, education, leadership.

Top 10 C. Northcote Parkinson Quotes

1. Delay is the deadliest form of denial.
2. The void created by the failure to communicate is soon filled with poison, drivel and misrepresentation.
3. 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.
4. Administrators make work for each other so that they can multiply the number of their subordinates and enhance their prestige.
5. The vacuum created by a failure to communicate will quickly be filled with rumor, misrepresentations, drivel, and poison.
6. Parkinson's First Law: Work expands to fill the time available.
7. Perfection of planned layout is achieved only by institutions on the point of collapse.
8. When any organizational entity expands beyond 21 members, the real power will be in some smaller body.
9. Parkinson's Fourth Law: The number of people in any working group tends to increase regardless of the amount of work to be done.
10. 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.

C. Northcote Parkinson Short Quotes

• Expenditures rise to meet income.
• Expansion means complexity and complexity decay.
• The chief product of an automated society is a widespread and deepening sense of boredom.
• The basic quality for the diplomat is not intelligence but loyalty.
• Make the people sovereign and the poor will use the machinery of government to dispossess the rich.
• The smaller the function, the greater the management.
• Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.
• The onset of one religion can be resisted only by another.
• Deliberative bodies become decreasingly effective after they pass five to eight members.
• Time spent on any item of the agenda will be in inverse proportion to the sum involved.

C. Northcote Parkinson Famous Quotes And Sayings

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. — C. Northcote Parkinson

Where life is colorful and varied, religion can be austere or unimportant. Where life is appallingly monotonous, religion must be emotional, dramatic and intense. Without the curry, boiled rice can be very dull. — C. Northcote Parkinson

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. — C. Northcote Parkinson

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. — C. Northcote Parkinson

If there is a way to delay an important decision, the good bureaucracy, public or private, will find it. — C. Northcote Parkinson

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. — C. Northcote Parkinson

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. — C. Northcote Parkinson

It is now well known, however, that men enter local politics solely as a result of being unhappily married. — C. Northcote Parkinson

The nice thing about standards is, there are so many to choose from. Work expands to fill the time available for its completion. — C. Northcote Parkinson

In the foundation and development of a successful enterprise there must be a single-minded pursuit of financial profit. — C. Northcote Parkinson

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. — C. Northcote Parkinson

A committee grows organically, flourishes and blossoms, sunlit on top and shady beneath, until it dies, scattering the seeds from which other committees will spring. — C. Northcote Parkinson

The mind reels at the multiplication of books intended to justify the author's promotion from assistant to associate professor. — C. Northcote Parkinson

Imagination is essential and it comes first, for without imagination we are aimless. — C. Northcote Parkinson

It is the busiest man who has time to spare. — C. Northcote Parkinson

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. — C. Northcote Parkinson

The matters most debated in a deliberative body tend to be the minor ones where everybody understands the issues. — C. Northcote Parkinson

The man who is denied the opportunity of taking decisions of importance begins to regard as important the decisions he is allowed to take. — C. Northcote Parkinson

Life Lessons by C. Northcote Parkinson

1. C. Northcote Parkinson taught the importance of staying organized and efficient, as he is most famous for his law of "Parkinson's Law" which states that work expands to fill the time available for its completion.
2. He also stressed the need for a sense of humor in life, as he wrote books such as "Parkinson's Law, or The Pursuit of Progress" which was a humorous look at the British Civil Service.
3. Lastly, he taught the importance of learning from history, as he wrote several books about British history and the lessons that can be learned from it.