The art of government is the organization of idolatry. The bureaucracy consists of functionaries; the aristocracy, of idols; the democracy, of idolaters. The populace cannot understand the bureaucracy: it can only worship the national idols.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Routine is not organization, any more than paralysis is order.
—Arthur Helps (1813–75) English Dramatist, Essayist
It is essential that there should be organization of labor. This is an era of organization. Capital organizes and therefore labor must organize.
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Explorer
The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual.
—Vince Lombardi (1913–70) American Football Coach
The more highly public life is organized the lower does its morality sink.
—E. M. Forster (1879–1970) English Novelist, Short Story Writer, Essayist
The only things that evolve by themselves in an organization are disorder, friction, and malperformance.
—Peter Drucker (1909–2005) Austrian-born Management Consultant
In a world where the outrageous has become the norm, stable organizations make no sense.
—Unknown
Once an organization loses its spirit of pioneering and rests on its early work, its progress stops.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr. (1874–1956) American Business Executive
Organizations that remain vital show their new employees that they are needed. At the same time, they never forget the value of their long-service employees. And they always give both a second chance.
—Unknown
Order is the sanity of the mind, the health of the body, the peace of the city, the security of the state.—As the beams to a house, as the bones to the body, so is order to all things.
—Robert South (1634–1716) English Theologian, Preacher
The primary asset of any business is its organization.
—William Feather (1889–1981) American Publisher, Author
Research indicates that workers have three prime needs: Interesting work, recognition for doing a good job, and being let in on things that are going on in the company.
—Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American Author
A political organization is a transferable commodity. You could not find a better way of killing virtue than by packing it into one of these contraptions which some gang of thieves is sure to find useful.
—John Jay Chapman (1862–1933) American Biographer, Poet, Essayist, Writer
Irregularity and want of method are only supportable in men of great learning or genius, who are often too full to be exact, and therefore they choose to throw down their pearls in heaps before the reader, rather than be at the pains of stringing them.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
If a better system is thine, impart it; if not, make use of mine.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries.
—A. A. Milne (1882–1956) British Humorist, Playwright, Children’s Writer
I won’t belong to any organization that would have me as a member.
—Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American Actor, Comedian, Singer
The new organization is edgeless, permeable, amorphous… constantly re-forming according to need.
—Unknown
To know where you can find a thing is the chief part of learning.
—Unknown
One of the many reasons for the bewildering and tragic character of human existence is the fact that social organization is at once necessary and fatal. Men are forever creating such organizations for their own convenience and forever finding themselves the victims of their home-made monsters.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
An organization that is strong and stable and is ready to commit time, money, and patience will be more apt to reap rewards than the quick-hitting opportunist.
—Richard C. Miller (b.1948) American Yogic Scholar, Researcher
Albrecht’s Law – Intelligent people, when assembled into an organization, will tend toward collective stupidity.
—Karl Albrecht (1920–2014) German Retail Businessman
Organization charts and fancy titles count for next to nothing.
—Colin Powell (b.1937) American Military Leader
The system isn’t stupid, but the people in it are.
—Thomas Szasz (1920–2012) Hungarian-American Psychiatrist, Psychoanalyst
Every company has two organizational structures: The formal one is written on the charts; the other is the everyday relationship of the men and women in the organization.
—Harold S. Geneen (1910–1997) British-American Businessman
Any consideration of the life and larger social existence of the modern corporate man begins and also largely ends with the effect of one all-embracing force. That is organization—the highly structured assemblage of men, and now some women, of which he is a part. It is to this, at the expense of family, friends, sex, recreation and sometimes health and effective control of alcoholic intake, that he is expected to devote his energies.
—John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) Canadian-Born American Economist
Organization can never be a substitute for initiative and for judgment.
—Louis Brandeis (1856–1941) American Jurist
In a balanced organization, working towards a common objective, there is success.
—Arthur Helps (1813–75) English Dramatist, Essayist
It is necessary to have party organization if we are to have effective and efficient government. The only difference between a mob and a trained army is organization, and the only difference between a disorganized country and one that has the advantage of a wise and sound government is fundamentally a question of organization.
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American Head of State, Lawyer
We trained hard-but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and what a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralization.
—Petronius (c.27–66 CE) Roman Courtier, Novelist
Organization is the enemy of improvisation.
—Unknown
Do you know what amazes me more than anything else? The impotence of force to organize anything.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
The foolish think that nothing is well done, except that which they do themselves.
—Unknown
Meetings are a symptom of bad organization. The fewer meetings the better.
—Peter Drucker (1909–2005) Austrian-born Management Consultant
In any great organization it is far, far safer to be wrong with the majority than to be right alone.
—John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) Canadian-Born American Economist