Mary Douglas Quotes

Structure is not about moving boxes around on a chart. Structure is about power.

Oddly, the military world is one of great sameness. There is an orderly quality to life on an army base, and even the children of the military are brought up with that sense of order and sameness.

Military justice is to justice what military music is to music.

You can call anyyne here or call me. We have no formal chain of command.

Some people need a command-and-control environment.

The Spectator' has to be managed and people have to report. We all have bosses in this world and that's true of 'The Spectator' too.

Any business or club has to have a hierarchy. Everybody needs to know and understand his role in the overall structure. Bayern Munich is no different.

I know what hierarchy and discipline mean. Without those, we will never have order and progress.

Once in a while there's wisdom in recognizing that the Boss is.

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

The principle of subordination is the great bond of union and harmony through the universe.

Order is power.

What's true for churches is true for other institutions: the older and more organized they get, the less adaptable they become. That's why the most resilient things in our world - biological life, stock markets, the Internet - are loosely organized.

It is reassuring for people to feel they have a boss, someone who knows the answers and has charted the course.

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.

I will not serve lunch to anyone in the middle of a workday. I rarely rearrange my furniture or cabinets; once I find a drawer for something, it stays there. I don't garden. And I don't knit.

We have created trouble for ourselves in organizations by confusing control with order.

When you establish a powerful position, the first think you have to do is check that power and make it accountable.

He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander.

No matter how lofty you are in your department, the responsibility for what your lowliest assistant is doing is yours.

There is no course of life so weak and sotish as that which is managed by order, method, and discipline.

In government it is order that matters.

In the military you do not get points for creativity. You get points for obedience.

The White House Chief of Staff must always remember that he is staff and not chief.

There is no instant step from disorder to order.