C. Northcote Parkinson Professions : Naval historian Born : July 30, 1909 Died : March 9, 1993 Browse All Authors Top 39 quotes by C. Northcote Parkinson Delay is the deadliest form of denial. C. Northcote Parkinson denial political procrastination The void created by the failure to communicate is soon filled with poison, drivel and misrepresentation. C. Northcote Parkinson void communication poison 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. C. Northcote Parkinson agendas law mean The vacuum created by a failure to communicate will quickly be filled with rumor, misrepresentations, drivel, and poison. C. Northcote Parkinson rumor vacuums poison Parkinson's First Law: Work expands to fill the time available. C. Northcote Parkinson law work firsts Expenditure rises to meet income. C. Northcote Parkinson expenditures income inspirational 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 ignorance kings law 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 decision opportunity men Administrators make work for each other so that they can multiply the number of their subordinates and enhance their prestige. C. Northcote Parkinson administrators prestige 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. C. Northcote Parkinson law work numbers Perfection of planned layout is achieved only by institutions on the point of collapse. C. Northcote Parkinson collapse institutions perfection Expenditures rise to meet income. C. Northcote Parkinson expenditures income survival When any organizational entity expands beyond 21 members, the real power will be in some smaller body. C. Northcote Parkinson body organization real 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 initiative life-is men 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 phrases work men 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 perfect time discovery The chief product of an automated society is a widespread and deepening sense of boredom. C. Northcote Parkinson boredom progress blessing Make the people sovereign and the poor will use the machinery of government to dispossess the rich. C. Northcote Parkinson government use people If there is a way to delay an important decision, the good bureaucracy, public or private, will find it. C. Northcote Parkinson delay important decision 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 plant flower roots
