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
Delay is the deadliest form of denial. 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
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
Expenditures rise to meet income. C Northcote Parkinson
The smaller the function, the greater the management. C Northcote Parkinson
Deliberative bodies become decreasingly effective after they pass five to eight members. 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
Expansion means complexity, and complexity decay. 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
Men enter local politics solely as a result of being unhappily married. C Northcote Parkinson
It is better to be a has-been than a never-was. C Northcote Parkinson