Quotes about news
page 65

Ram Dass photo
Théodore Rousseau photo
Jocelyn Bell Burnell photo
Andrew S. Tanenbaum photo

“Be thankful you are not my student. You would not get a high grade for such a design :-) [… ] Writing a new OS only for the 386 in 1991 gets you your second "F" for this term.”

Andrew S. Tanenbaum (1944) Dutch computer scientist

In a Usenet message to Linus Torvalds, 30 Jan 1992 http://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.minix/msg/625c4a78723eeef5.
The "Linux is Obsolete" Debate

Paul Desmond photo
Michael Bloomberg photo
Jodi Benson photo
George W. Bush photo
Rudolf Karl Bultmann photo

“We cannot use electric lights and radios and, in the event of illness, avail ourselves of modern medical and clinical means and at the same time believe in the spirit and wonder world of the New Testament.”

Rudolf Karl Bultmann (1884–1976) German theologian

Man kann nicht elektrisches Licht und Radioapparat benutzen, in Krankheitsfällen moderne medizinische und klinische Mittel in Anspruch nehmen und gleichzeitig an die Geister-und Wunderwelt des Neuen Testaments glauben.
Source: New Testament and Mythology and Other Basic Writings (1941), p. 4

Francis Parkman photo
Pauline Kael photo
Hendrik Lorentz photo

“One has been led to the conception of electrons, i. e. of extremely small particles, charged with electricity, which are present in immense numbers in all ponderable bodies, and by whose distribution and motions we endeavor to explain all electric and optical phenomena that are not confined to the free ether…. according to our modern views, the electrons in a conducting body, or at least a certain part of them, are supposed to be in a free state, so that they can obey an electric force by which the positive particles are driven in one, and the negative electrons in the opposite direction. In the case of a non-conducting substance, on the contrary, we shall assume that the electrons are bound to certain positions of equilibrium. If, in a metallic wire, the electrons of one kind, say the negative ones, are travelling in one direction, and perhaps those of the opposite kind in the opposite direction, we have to do with a current of conduction, such as may lead to a state in which a body connected to one end of the wire has an excess of either positive or negative electrons. This excess, the charge of the body as a whole, will, in the state of equilibrium and if the body consists of a conducting substance, be found in a very thin layer at its surface.
In a ponderable dielectric there can likewise be a motion of the electrons. Indeed, though we shall think of each of them as haying a definite position of equilibrium, we shall not suppose them to be wholly immovable. They can be displaced by an electric force exerted by the ether, which we conceive to penetrate all ponderable matter… the displacement will immediately give rise to a new force by which the particle is pulled back towards its original position, and which we may therefore appropriately distinguish by the name of elastic force. The motion of the electrons in non-conducting bodies, such as glass and sulphur, kept by the elastic force within certain bounds, together with the change of the dielectric displacement in the ether itself, now constitutes what Maxwell called the displacement current. A substance in which the electrons are shifted to new positions is said to be electrically polarized.
Again, under the influence of the elastic forces, the electrons can vibrate about their positions of equilibrium. In doing so, and perhaps also on account of other more irregular motions, they become the centres of waves that travel outwards in the surrounding ether and can be observed as light if the frequency is high enough. In this manner we can account for the emission of light and heat. As to the opposite phenomenon, that of absorption, this is explained by considering the vibrations that are communicated to the electrons by the periodic forces existing in an incident beam of light. If the motion of the electrons thus set vibrating does not go on undisturbed, but is converted in one way or another into the irregular agitation which we call heat, it is clear that part of the incident energy will be stored up in the body, in other terms [words] that there is a certain absorption. Nor is it the absorption alone that can be accounted for by a communication of motion to the electrons. This optical resonance, as it may in many cases be termed, can likewise make itself felt even if there is no resistance at all, so that the body is perfectly transparent. In this case also, the electrons contained within the molecules will be set in motion, and though no vibratory energy is lost, the oscillating particles will exert an influence on the velocity with which the vibrations are propagated through the body. By taking account of this reaction of the electrons we are enabled to establish an electromagnetic theory of the refrangibility of light, in its relation to the wave-length and the state of the matter, and to form a mental picture of the beautiful and varied phenomena of double refraction and circular polarization.
On the other hand, the theory of the motion of electrons in metallic bodies has been developed to a considerable extent…. important results that have been reached by Riecke, Drude and J. J. Thomson… the free electrons in these bodies partake of the heat-motion of the molecules of ordinary matter, travelling in all directions with such velocities that the mean kinetic energy of each of them is equal to that of a gaseous molecule at the same temperature. If we further suppose the electrons to strike over and over again against metallic atoms, so that they describe irregular zigzag-lines, we can make clear to ourselves the reason that metals are at the same time good conductors of heat and of electricity, and that, as a general rule, in the series of the metals, the two conductivities change in nearly the same ratio. The larger the number of free electrons, and the longer the time that elapses between two successive encounters, the greater will be the conductivity for heat as well as that for electricity.”

Hendrik Lorentz (1853–1928) Dutch physicist

Source: The Theory of Electrons and Its Applications to the Phenomena of Light and Radiant Heat (1916), Ch. I General principles. Theory of free electrons, pp. 8-10

Rembrandt van Rijn photo

“Quote in Rembrandt's letter to Constantijn Huygens (Amsterdam, 12 January 1639) on 3 paintings commissioned (in 1635 and started by Rembrandt already in 1635/36) by the imperial court, as cited in Painters on Painting (1963) by Eric Protter, p. 78 / Dutch original text in The Rembrandt Documents, Walter Strauss & Marjon van der Meulen - Abaris Books, New York 1979, p. 161.”

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669) Dutch 17th century painter and etcher

version in original Dutch (origineel citaat van Rembrandt, in Nederlands): Door die grooten lust ende geneegenheijt die ick gepleecght hebbe int wel wtvoeren van die twe/ stuckens die sijn Hoocheijt mijn heeft doen maeken weesende het een daer dat doode lichaem Chrisstij/ in den graeve gelecht werd ende dat ander/ daer Chrisstus van den doode opstaet dat met/ grooten verschrickinge des wachters. Dees selvij/ twe stuckens sijn door stuijdiose vlijt nu meede/ afgedaen soodat ick nu oock geneegen ben om die/ selvijge te leeveren om sijn Hoocheijt daer meede/ te vermaeken want deesen twe sijnt daer die meeste/ ende die naetuereelste beweechgelickheijt . in/ geopserveert is dat oock de grooste oorsaeck is dat/ die selvijge soo lang onder handen sij geweest.
in margin: deessen 12 Januwarij 1639, Mijn heer ik woon op die binnenemster, thuijs is genaemt die suijckerbackerrij [in Amsterdam]. http://remdoc.huygens.knaw.nl/#/document/remdoc/e4458
What Rembrandt meant in his phrase "die meeste ende di naetuereelste beweechgelickheijt" has been the subject of dispute. Variant translations have been proposed:
For in these two paintings "the greatest and most innate emotion has been expressed", which is also the main reason why they have taken so long to execute (c. 3 years!).
The "deepest and most lifelike emotion has been expressed", and that's the reason they have taken so long to execute.
1630 - 1640

Richard Dawkins photo
Revilo P. Oliver photo
John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton photo
Upton Sinclair photo

“"What you doin' with such a big ol' dog in New York?" "Never had a wife."”

Abraham Polonsky (1910–1999) American politician

Odds Against Tomorrow (1959).

Jacoba van Heemskerck photo

“I work a lot and I think a lot. I really want to try to paint on glass.. Please will you ask him [mr. architect Taut ] if there are any transparent colors, which one can use to paint on the glass directly... I want to dispose of a new technique in which the artist can paint on the glass directly instead of canvas. When one wants to reach colors spiritually-bright, then a time will come that oil-paint and canvas are no longer suitable... So, if you have time, please ask Mr. Taut if he understands my view and maybe he knows the ways how I can follow my direction.”

Jacoba van Heemskerck (1876–1923) Dutch painter

translation from German, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018
(original version, written by Jacoba in German:)Ich arbeite sehr viel und denke sehr viel. Ich möchte so gern versuchen, auf Glas zu mahlen. .. ..bitte fragen sie ihn dann [Herr Taut] ob es transparante Farbe gibt, womit man gleich auf Glas malen kann. .. ..ich möchte eine neue Technik haben, dass der Künstler so direkt das Glas verwenden kann statt Leinwand. Wenn man die Farben leuchtend geistlich haben will, dann wird es eine Zeit kommen, dass Oelfarben und Leinwand sich dafür nicht mehr eignen.. ..So wenn Sie Zeit haben, fragen Sie dann Herrn Taut ob er meine Idee versteht und vielieich den Weg kennt, den ik gehen müsse.
in a letter to Herwarth Walden, 11 Nov. 1914; as cited by Arend H. Huussen Jr. in Jacoba van Heemskerck, kunstenares van het Expressionisme, Haags Gemeentemuseum The Hague, 1982, p. 19
It was not until April 1918 that Jacoba wrote Walden she had decided to submit a series of designs for stained glass windows for the upcoming 'Sturm' exhibition - in April 1919 she sent him ten stained-glass windows, 'Nrs. 12-26'
1910's

Michele Bachmann photo

“Lord, the day is at hand. We are in the last days. You are a Jehovah God. We know that the times are in your hands. And we give them to you…The day is at hand, Lord, when your return will come nigh. Nothing is more important than bringing sheep into the fold. Than bringing new life into the kingdom…You have weeded that garden. The harvest is at hand.”

Michele Bachmann (1956) American politician

Praying for You Can Run But You Can't Hide ministry in 2006
Bachmann Predicted The World Would End In 2006: ‘We Are In The Last Days’
Marie
Diamond
2011-07-18
Think Progress
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/07/18/264811/bachmann-predicted-world-end-2006/
2011-07-18
2010s

“As Mahoba was for some time the headquarters of the early Muhammadan Governors, we could hardly expect to find that any Hindu buildings had escaped their furious bigotry, or their equally destructive cupidity. When the destruction of a Hindu temple furnished the destroyer with the ready means of building a house for himself on earth, as well as in heaven, it is perhaps wonderful that so many temples should still be standing in different parts of the country. It must be admitted, however, that, in none of the cities which the early Muhammadans occupied permanently, have they left a single temple standing, save this solitary temple at Mahoba, which doubtless owed its preservation solely to its secure position amid the deep waters of the Madan-Sagar. In Delhi, and Mathura, in Banaras and Jonpur, in Narwar and Ajmer, every single temple was destroyed by their bigotry, but thanks to their cupidity, most of the beautiful Hindu pillars were preserved, and many of them, perhaps, on their original positions, to form new colonnades for the masjids and tombs of the conquerors. In Mahoba all the other temples were utterly destroyed and the only Hindu building now standing is part of the palace of Parmal, or Paramarddi Deva, on the hill-fort, which has been converted into a masjid. In 1843, I found an inscription of Paramarddi Deva built upside down in the wall of the fort just outside this masjid. It is dated in S. 1240, or A. D. 1183, only one year before the capture of Mahoba by Prithvi-Raj Chohan of Delhi. In the Dargah of Pir Mubarak Shah, and the adjacent Musalman burial-ground, I counted 310 Hindu pillars of granite. I found a black stone bull lying beside the road, and the argha of a lingam fixed as a water-spout in the terrace of the Dargah. These last must have belonged to a temple of Siva, which was probably built in the reign of Kirtti Varmma, between 1065 and 1085 A. D., as I discovered an inscription of that prince built into the wall of one of the tombs.”

Archaeological Survey of India, Volume I: Four Reports Made During the Years 1862-63-64-65, Varanasi Reprint, 1972, Pp. 440-41. Quoted from Goel, Sita Ram (editor) (1993). Hindu temples: What happened to them. Volume I.

Willa Cather photo
G. I. Gurdjieff photo
Muhammad Ali Jinnah photo
Muammar Gaddafi photo
Pope John Paul II photo

“(…) New knowledge has led to the recognition of the theory of evolution as more than a hypothesis. It is indeed remarkable that this theory has been progressively accepted by researchers, following a series of discoveries in various fields of knowledge. The convergence, neither sought nor fabricated, of the results of work that was conducted independently is in itself a significant argument in favor of this theory.”

Pope John Paul II (1920–2005) 264th Pope of the Catholic Church, saint

(...) De nouvelles connaissances conduisent à reconnaître dans la théorie de l'évolution plus qu'une hypothèse. Il est en effet remarquable que cette théorie se soit progressivement imposée à l'esprit des chercheurs, à la suite d'une série de découvertes faites dans diverses disciplines du savoir. La convergence, nullement recherchée ou provoquée, des résultats de travaux menés indépendamment les uns des autres, constitue par elle même un argument significatif en faveur de cette théorie.
early news reports mistranslated the French phrase plus qu'une hypothèse as "more than one hypothesis". http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/sciences/LifeScience/PhysicalAnthropology/EvolutionFact/Evolution/Evolution.htm
Message to the participants in the Plenary of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, 22 October 1996
Source: Libreria Editrice Vaticana http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/messages/pont_messages/1996/documents/hf_jp-ii_mes_19961022_evoluzione_fr.html (French)

“Visual delight, sentiment, and exploration become one in the new appreciation of landscape and Nature.”

Charles Rosen (1927–2012) American pianist and writer on music

Source: The Romantic Generation (1995), Ch. 3 : Mountains and Song Cycles

Margaret Hughes photo

“The Australia of her book is not merely a setting for cricket but a place of interest, of fun and of new impressions”

Margaret Hughes (1645–1719) British actress

John Arlott, review of The Long Hop; quoted in Times obituary http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article516103.ece
About

Theodor Mommsen photo

“We have reached the end of the Roman republic. We have seen it rule for five hundred years in Italy and in the countries on the Mediterranean; we have seen it brought to rum in politics and morals, religion and literature, not through outward violence but through inward decay, and thereby making room for the new monarchy of Caesar. There was in the world, as Caesar found it, much of the noble heritage of past centuries and an infinite abundance of pomp and glory, but little spirit, still less taste, and least of all true delight in life. It was indeed an old world; and even the richly-gifted patriotism of Caesar [b] could not make it young again. The dawn does not return till after the night has fully set in and run its course. But yet with him there came to the sorely harassed peoples on the Mediterranean a tolerable evening after the sultry noon; and when at length after a long historical night a new day dawned once more for the peoples, and fresh nations in free self-movement commenced their race towards new and higher goals, there were found among them not a few, in which the seed sown by Caesar had sprung up, and which were and are indebted to him for their national individuality.”

Theodor Mommsen (1817–1903) German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician, archaeologist and writer

/b
Vol. 4, Pt. 2, Translated by W.P. Dickson.
Last paragraph of the last volume
The History of Rome - Volume 4: Part 2

Fernand Léger photo

“I myself have employed the close-up, which is the cinema's only real invention. The fragment of the object has also been of use to me; by isolating it you personalize it. All this work has led me to regard the phenomenon of objectivity as a new and highly contemporary value in itself”

Fernand Léger (1881–1955) French painter

quote of c. 1927
Quote in 'Autour de Ballet Méchanique', as quoted in Fernand Léger – The Later Years -, catalogue ed. Nicolas Serota; published by the Trustees of the Whitechapel Art gallery, London, Prestel Verlag, 1988, pp. 21-22
Quotes of Fernand Leger, 1920's

William Luther Pierce photo
Calvin Coolidge photo

“But we have an opportunity before us to reassert our desire and to lend the force of our example for the peaceful adjudication of differences between nations. Such action would be in entire harmony with the policy which we have long advocated. I do not look upon it as a certain guaranty against war, but it would be a method of disposing of troublesome questions, an accumulation of which leads to irritating conditions and results in mutually hostile sentiments. More than a year ago President Harding proposed that the Senate should authorize our adherence to the protocol of the Permanent Court of International Justice, with certain conditions. His suggestion has already had my approval. On that I stand. I should not oppose other reservations, but any material changes which would not probably receive the consent of the many other nations would be impracticable. We can not take a step in advance of this kind without assuming certain obligations. Here again if we receive anything we must surrender something. We may as well face the question candidly, and if we are willing to assume these new duties in exchange for the benefits which would accrue to us, let us say so. If we are not willing, let us say that. We can accomplish nothing by taking a doubtful or ambiguous position. We are not going to be able to avoid meeting the world and bearing our part of the burdens of the world. We must meet those burdens and overcome them or they will meet us and overcome us. For my part I desire my country to meet them without evasion and without fear in an upright, downright, square, American way.”

Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American politician, 30th president of the United States (in office from 1923 to 1929)

1920s, Freedom and its Obligations (1924)

William Lane Craig photo

“Okay, look at it this way: if the evening news has a very high probability of being accurate, then it's highly improbable that they would inaccurately report the numbers chosen in the lottery. That counterbalances any improbability in the choosing of those numbers, so you're quite rational to believe in this highly improbable event.”

William Lane Craig (1949) American Christian apologist and evangelist

[2000, The Case for Faith: A Journalist Investigates the Toughest Objections to Christianity, Lee, Strobel, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, 9780310565703, http://books.google.com/books?id=5kgb7v1qlF4C]

Flavor Flav photo
Donald J. Trump photo

“Reporters at The New York Times are not journalists. They're corporate lobbyists for Carlos Slim and Hillary Clinton.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

2010s, 2016, October

“If that thise men that lovers hem pretende,
To women weren feythfull good and trewe,
And dreden hem to deceyven or offende,
Women, to love hem, wolde nat eschewe;
But every day hath man an herte newe:
Yt, upon oon, abide can no while.
What fore ys it, swich a wight to be-gile?”

Thomas Occleve (1369–1426) British writer

If those men who to be lovers pretend
Behaved more faithfully and did not lie,
And dreaded to deceive or to offend,
Then women might not choose to pass them by.
But each man's heart's a fickle butterfly
Which can alight on one just a short while.
Can it be wrong in this case to beguile?
"The Letter of Cupid", line 267; vol. 1, p. 83; translation from Thelma S. Fenster and Mary Carpenter Erler (eds.) Poems of Cupid, God of Love (Leiden: Brill, 1990) p. 191.

Mark Satin photo
James A. Garfield photo
Maurice Glasman, Baron Glasman photo
Gloria Estefan photo

“Now in addition to being applauded as a five-time Grammy-Award-winning artist, Gloria now has the distinction of being titled a two-time New York Times best-selling author!”

Gloria Estefan (1957) Cuban-American singer-songwriter, actress and divorciada

comment by Frank Amadeo, president of EEI, after Estefan's second children's book, "Noelle's Treasure Tale," debuted in third position on The New York Times children's picture book best seller list for the week of October 29, 2006
2007, 2008

Marshall McLuhan photo

“Marx shared with economists then and since the inability to make his concepts include innovational processes. It is one thing to spot a new product but quite another to observe the invisible new environments generated by the action of the product on a variety of pre-existing social grounds.”

Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar-- a professor of English literature, a literary critic, and a …

Source: 1970s, Take Today : The Executive as Dropout (1972), p. 63

Luther Burbank photo

“Sex is not a necessary attribute of all living things.. [it is] a most necessary attribute if progress in evolution of new forms is to occur, as they have progressed through the ages and as we now see them progressing on this planet.”

Luther Burbank (1849–1926) American botanist, horticulturist and pioneer in agricultural science

How Plants are Trained to Work for Man (1921) Vol. 1 Plant Breeding

Mitt Romney photo

“I am in favor of stem cell research. I am not in favor of creating new human embryos through cloning.”

Mitt Romney (1947) American businessman and politician

Press conference, May 2005 http://www.heartland.org/publications/health%20care/article/16862/Massachusetts_Governor_Battles_Harvard_and_Legislature_on_Stem_Cell_Research.html
2003–2007 Governor of Massachusetts

Colin Powell photo

“The United Nations will spearhead our efforts to manage the new conflicts (that afflict our world)…. Yes the principles of the United Nations Charter are worth our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.”

Colin Powell (1937) Former U.S. Secretary of State and retired four-star general

General Colin Powell, 21 April 1993, receiving the UN-USA Global Leadership Award.
1990s

Anu Garg photo
Ha-Joon Chang photo
Gordon Brown photo

“It is time to train British workers for the British jobs that will be available over the coming few years and to make sure that people who are inactive and unemployed are able to get the new jobs on offer in our country.”

Gordon Brown (1951) British Labour Party politician

"Brown pledges 'British workers for British jobs'", Evening Standard, 5 June 2007, p. 1.
Speech to the GMB Union, 5 June 2007.
Chancellor of the Exchequer

Fritz Leiber photo
Stephen King photo
Erik Naggum photo
Donald J. Trump photo
Hugh Macmillan, Baron Macmillan photo
H.L. Mencken photo
Joseph Goebbels photo

“To be modern only means to fill new forms with eternal truths.”

Joseph Goebbels (1897–1945) Nazi politician and Propaganda Minister

Modern sein heißt nichts anderes als ewige Inhalte in wechselnde neue Formen zu füllen.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)

William Blake photo
Lucy Larcom photo

“O Mariner-soul,
Thy quest is but begun,
There are new worlds
Forever to be won.”

Lucy Larcom (1824–1893) American teacher, poet, author

Last written words (17 April 1893), as quoted in Ch. 12 : Last Years.
Lucy Larcom : Life, Letters, and Diary (1895)

Fryderyk Skarbek photo

“[Adam Smith was] a higher above all genius (…) who had recognized some mistakes of the mercantile and physiocrats systems, put new principles of a theory called the industrial system, and directed minds for this road, on which they should necessarily advance”

Fryderyk Skarbek (1792–1866) Polish noble

Introduction; Cited in: Stefan Zabieglik. "Adam Smith's political economy in Poland. Review of the problem." Argumenta Oeconomica, 2002, No 2 (13)
Dictionary of political economy, 1818

Nas photo

“Now all these new cats with they hats flipped backwards
fingers intertwined in sum gang sign madness
I got an exam lets if you pass it
Now who can quote a Daddy Kane line the fastest?”

Nas (1973) American rapper, record producer and entrepreneur

Carry on Tradition
On Albums, Hip Hop Is Dead (2006)

Jerry Coyne photo
Ken Ham photo
Mao Zedong photo
Allan Kardec photo
Benjamin N. Cardozo photo
Ian Bremmer photo

“New York used to be the financial capital of the world. It's no longer even the financial capital of the U. S. For the moment, Washington is.”

Ian Bremmer (1969) American political scientist

"The New Capitals of Capital," http://fearandloathingingtown.blogspot.com/2009/03/quote-of-day_21.html Forbes (March 19, 2009).

Alexander Woollcott photo
Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo
Irene Dunne photo

“Like many New Englanders - he was a neighbor of Calvin Coolidge's in Northampton - he finds life a serious business. But he's never - well - heavy about it.”

Irene Dunne (1898–1990) American actress

about her husband, Dr. Francis Griffin Revealing The Life Of Irene Dunne, by Adele Whitely Fletcher; The Modern Screen (September 1933) http://www.irenedunnesite.com/press/modern-screen-september-1933/.

Edward Jenks photo
Marie de France photo

“Anyone who intends to present a new story must approach the problem in a new way and speak so persuasively that the tale brings pleasure to people.”

Ki divers cunte veut traitier,
Diversement deit comencier
E parler si rainablement
K'il seit pleisibles a la gent.
"Milun", line 1; p. 97.
Lais

“A new leader has to be able to change an organization that is dreamless, soulless and visionless … someone's got to make a wake up call.”

Warren Bennis (1925–2014) American leadership expert

Warren Bennis, in Reinventing Leadership : Strategies to Empower the Organization (2005), by Warren G. Bennis and Robert Townsend, p. 91
2000s

Jeff VanderMeer photo
Henry Mintzberg photo
Anastacia photo
Daniel Levitin photo
Ernst Bloch photo

“A religion without the Holy Ghost, though it had all the ordinances and all the doctrines of the New Testament, would certainly not be Christianity.”

William Arthur (minister) (1819–1901) Wesleyan Methodist minister and author

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 317.

Hale Boggs photo
Manuel Castells photo

“At its core, the new economy is based on culture: on the culture of innovation, on the culture of risk, and the culture of expectations, and, ultimately on the culture of hope in the future.”

Manuel Castells (1942) Spanish sociologist (b.1942)

Source: The Internet Galaxy - Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society (2001), Chapter 3, e-Business and the New Economy, p. 112

Petronius photo

“We trained hard... but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.”

Petronius (27–66) Roman courtier, supposed author of the Satyricon

A paraphrased quotation from Charlton Ogburn (1911–1998) in "Merrill's Marauders: The truth about an incredible adventure" http://www.harpers.org/archive/1957/01/0007289 in the January 1957 issue of Harper's Magazine
Actual Charlton Ogburn quote: "We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we would be reorganized. Presumably the plans for our employment were being changed. I was to learn later in life that, perhaps because we are so good at organizing, we tend as a nation to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralization."
Misattributed