About 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 (1957), in which Parkinson advanced the eponymous law stating that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”, an insight which led him to be regarded as an important scholar in public administration and management.

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More quotes from C. Northcote Parkinson

Delay is the deadliest form of denial.

C. Northcote Parkinson

British naval historian

When any organizational entity expands beyond 21 members, the real power will be in some smaller body.

C. Northcote Parkinson

British naval historian

Expansion means complexity and complexity decay.

C. Northcote Parkinson

British naval historian

Expenditures rise to meet income.

C. Northcote Parkinson

British naval historian

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

British naval historian

Make the people sovereign and the poor will use the machinery of government to dispossess the rich.

C. Northcote Parkinson

British naval historian

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

C. Northcote Parkinson

British naval historian

The smaller the function, the greater the management.

C. Northcote Parkinson

British naval historian

The chief product of an automated society is a widespread and deepening sense of boredom.

C. Northcote Parkinson

British naval historian

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

British naval historian

Time spent on any item of the agenda will be in inverse proportion to the sum involved.

C. Northcote Parkinson

British naval historian

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

British naval historian

In politics people give you what they think you deserve and deny you what they think you want.

C. Northcote Parkinson

British naval historian

It is better to be a has-been than a never-was.

C. Northcote Parkinson

British naval historian

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

British naval historian

Men enter local politics solely as a result of being unhappily married.

C. Northcote Parkinson

British naval historian

Perfection of planned layout is achieved only by institutions on the point of collapse.

C. Northcote Parkinson

British naval historian