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… — C. Northcote Parkinson Copy Share Image
In the foundation and development of a successful enterprise there must be a single-minded pursuit of financial profit. — C. Northcote Parkinson Copy Share Image
The mind reels at the multiplication of books intended to justify the author's promotion from assistant to associate professor. — C. Northcote Parkinson Copy Share Image
Parkinson's First Law: Work expands to fill the time available. — C. Northcote Parkinson Copy Share Image
Time spent on any item of the agenda will be in inverse proportion to the sum involved. — C. Northcote Parkinson Copy Share Image
It is now well known, however, that men enter local politics solely as a result of being unhappily married. — C. Northcote Parkinson Copy Share Image
Administrators make work for each other so that they can multiply the number of their subordinates and enhance their prestige. — C. Northcote Parkinson Copy Share Image
People of great ability do not emerge, as a rule, from the happiest background. So far as my own observation goes, I would conclude… — C. Northcote Parkinson Copy Share Image
No king or minister could have instructed Newton to discover the law of gravity, for they did not know and could not know that… — C. Northcote Parkinson Copy Share Image
A committee grows organically, flourishes and blossoms, sunlit on top and shady beneath, until it dies, scattering the seeds from which other committees will… — C. Northcote Parkinson Copy Share Image
Deliberative bodies become decreasingly effective after they pass five to eight members. — C. Northcote Parkinson Copy Share Image