“Committee - a group of men who keep minutes and waste hours.”
Milton Berle (1908–2002) American comedian and actor
“The safest refuge when dealing with urgent, ticklish problems is sought in shirking responsibility, in gaining time by the formation of Committees, with the requisite Sub-Committees to tackle the problem. It is the well-known practice of Promise, Pause, Prepare, Postpone and end by letting things alone. But this cannot last for ever. Now the secret of these Committees is that they consist of a group of men, who individually can do nothing, but collectively can meet and decide that nothing can be done, whilst they know that the best Sub-Committees consist of three persons, two of whom are always absent!”
The Pageant of Life (1964), On Problem Solving
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Peter de Noronha44
Indian businessman 1897–1970Related quotes
Leonard E. Read (1898–1983) American academic
Leonard Read Journals, November 4, 1951 https://history.fee.org/leonard-read-journal/1951/leonard-e-read-journal-november-1951/
Gerald Ford (1913–2006) American politician, 38th President of the United States (in office from 1974 to 1977)
State of the Union Address (12 January 1977) http://www.ford.utexas.edu/library/speeches/761057.htm <br class="br">1970s <br class="br">Context: The exclusive right to declare war, the duty to advise and consent on the part of the Senate, the power of the purse on the part of the House are ample authority for the legislative branch and should be jealously guarded. But because we may have been too careless of these powers in the past does not justify congressional intrusion into, or obstruction of, the proper exercise of Presidential responsibilities now or in the future. There can be only one Commander in Chief. In these times crises cannot be managed and wars cannot be waged by committee, nor can peace be pursued solely by parliamentary debate. To the ears of the world, the President speaks for the Nation. While he is, of course, ultimately accountable to the Congress, the courts, and the people, he and his emissaries must not be handicapped in advance in their relations with foreign governments as has sometimes happened in the past.
Ben Travers (1886–1980) English writer of plays, screenplays, novels, and three memoirs
The Infatuee, included in The Cricketer's Bedside Book (1966)
Harry Truman (1884–1972) American politician, 33rd president of the United States (in office from 1945 to 1953)
Executive Order 9981 (1948)
“What is a committee? A group of the unwilling, picked from the unfit, to do the unnecessary.”
Richard Harkness (1907–1977) American journalist
The New York Herald Tribune, 15 June 1960.
Robertson Davies (1913–1995) Canadian journalist, playwright, professor, critic, and novelist
The Three Warning Circles (1972).
Arthur Li (1945) Hong Kong politician
Leaked recording: Arthur Li speaks against Johannes Chan, EJ Insight, http://www.webcitation.org/6cfxbjx4k, 30 October 2015 http://www.ejinsight.com/20151028-leaked-recording-arthur-li-speaks-against-johannes-chan/,
Carl L. Becker (1873–1945) American historian
The Declaration of Independence: A Study in the History of Political Ideas (1922)