Parkinson's Law is a purely scientific discovery, inapplicable except in theory to the politics of the day. It is not the business of the botanist to eradicate the weeds. Enough for him if he can tell us just how fast they grow.

Expenditures rise to meet income.

Administrators make work for each other so that they can multiply the number of their subordinates and enhance their prestige.

The basic quality for the diplomat is not intelligence but loyalty.

A committee grows organically, flourishes and blossoms, sunlit on top and shady beneath, until it dies, scattering the seeds from which other committees will spring.

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.

The mind reels at the multiplication of books intended to justify the author's promotion from assistant to associate professor.