Quotes by 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.”

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

“Expenditures rise to meet income.”

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

“It is not the business of the botanist to eradicate weeds. Enough for him if he can tell us just how fast they grow.”

“He that has a penny in his purse, is worth a penny: Have and you shall be esteemed”

“Government is a kind of legalized pillage”

“Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anyone else expects of you. Never excuse yourself.”

“Your mission is proving that a love for the earth, and for the things of the earth, is possible without materialism, a love without greed... I entreat you not to be turned by the call of vulgar strength, of stupendous size, by the spirit of storage,”

Delay is the deadliest form of denial.

Expenditure rises to meet income.

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

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.

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

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

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