Of all human inventions the organization, a machine constructed of people performing interdependent functions, is the most powerful.

But the more an organization succeeds and prospers, the more it is likely to be diverted from its original ideals, principles and purposes.

It often happens that when a person possesses a particular ability to an extraordinary degree, nature makes up for it by leaving him or her incompetent in every other department.

But instead I usually say that, though it may surprise them, I too believe in the necessity of organization.

Of all human inventions the organization, a machine constructed of people performing interdependent functions, is the most powerful.

That the more authoritarian organizations survive and prevail goes generally unnoticed because people focus on the objectives of organizations, which are many and varied, rather than on their structures, which lend to be similar.

The Gnostics were rapidly driven out of business by the hierarchical orthodox Christians.

Every combination of two or more human beings has both a useful aspect and a political aspect.

Military organization, like religious organization, can be seen as a paradigm of organization in general.

Indeed, one of the most successful and influential religious organizations in history, the Society of Jesus, was consciously modeled along military lines by its founder, Ignatius Loyola.

Just as predatory animals follow a similar general design and behave in similar ways, so organizations, especially those in competition with one another, must follow certain design principles if they are to succeed and prevail.

To reject even one major tenet of the religion or to violate one major rule of behavior is enough to get one kicked out - or worse.

Indeed, if our ancestors of millions of years ago hadn't learned how to care for one another and hunt in packs, they'd all have ended up being eaten by leopards.

Because the better an organization is at fulfilling its purpose, the more it attracts people who see the organization as an opportunity to advance themselves.

A permanent division of labor inevitably creates occupational and class inequality and conflict.

Even while we busily attend meetings, contribute money and perform our assigned tasks, we suspect that we may be helping to create a force that is inimical to many values we hold dear.

As such people achieve influence within the organization, whenever there is a conflict between their own interest and the interest of the organization, their interests will win out.

This whole phenomenon of the diversion of organizations from their purposes and ideals does not seem very serious when the scum rise to the top in the bridge club or the offices of a small magazine publisher.

Ultimately we may still ask, why can't humans design a perfect society?

You are attached to what you attack.

It is instructive, for instance, to trace the computer industry's decline in vision, idealism, creativity, romance and sheer fun as it becomes more and more important and prosperous.

One simple way to keep organizations from becoming cancerous might be to rotate all jobs on a regular, frequent and mandatory basis, including the leadership positions.

Anyone who seeks power wants absolute power.

The ability to get ahead in an organization is simply another talent, like the ability to play chess, paint pictures, do coronary bypass operations or pick pockets.

Organized religion provides a model of the way all organizations, from the state down to the village garden club, end a price in terms of a member's freedom of thought and action.

Individuals, too, who cultivate a variety of skills seem brighter, more energetic and more adaptable than those who know how to do one thing only.

The key element in tragedy is that heroes and heroines are destroyed by that which appears to be their greatest strength.

This is the patent age of new inventions for killing bodies, and for saving souls. All propagated with the best intentions.

Of all of our inventions for mass communication, pictures still speak the most universally understood language.

Community colleges are one of America's great social inventions a gateway to the future for first time students looking for an affordable college education, and for mid-career students looking to get ahead in the workplace.

People never knew we were poor, but out of that poverty came the most incredible inventions - board games, recipes... we never stopped inventing.

Until democracy in effective enthusiastic action fills the vacuum created by the power of modern inventions, we may expect the fascists to increase in power after the war both in the United States and in the world.

Of all human inventions the organization, a machine constructed of people performing interdependent functions, is the most powerful.

I never did anything worth doing by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work.

Most of them are doomed to rapid extinction, but a few may make evolutionary inventions, such as physiological, ecological, or behavioral innovations that give these species improved competitive potential.

I'm afraid for all those who'll have the bread snatched from their mouths by these machines. What business has science and capitalism got, bringing all these new inventions into the works, before society has produced a generation educated up to using them!

But what has America to boast? What are the graces or the virtues which distinguish its inhabitants? What are their triumphs in war, or their inventions in peace?

Order, unity, and continuity are human inventions, just as truly as catalogues and encyclopedias.

Men of genius sometimes accomplish most when they work the least, for they are thinking out inventions and forming in their minds the perfect idea that they subsequently express with their hands.

Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does nature because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous.

The art of an artist must be his own art. It is... always a continuous chain of little inventions, little technical discoveries of one's own, in one's relation to the tool, the material and the colors.

The inventions and the great discoveries have opened up whole continents to reciprocal communication and interchange, provided we are willing.

All of the biggest technological inventions created by man - the airplane, the automobile, the computer - says little about his intelligence, but speaks volumes about his laziness.

Life is composed of different inventions.

I never did anything by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work.

In reading the scriptures of truth, we often put wrong constructions upon them, and apply them improperly; and I apprehend it has often been the case in relation to this portion, particularly that part in relation to man's seeking out many inventions.

All one's inventions are true, you can be sure of that. Poetry is as exact a science as geometry.

A major one which no one can overlook is technological and based on inventions and discoveries which have altered the whole basis of production and deeply affected social relations.

Our inventions mirror our secret wishes.