Ira Magaziner Quotes

Bureaucrats: they are dead at 30 and buried at 60. They are like custard pies; you can't nail them to a wall.

Delay has the odor of the Beltway.

Washington’s largest industry is inertia.

Washington DC is a city of motion, not action.

The major functions of the government are … operated by deeply embedded, hopelessly entangled bureaus where nothing is accomplished because the function of the bureau is to intercept every living idea and smother it.

One of the reasons Americans hold Washington in such low regard is the perception that nothing ever gets done. Whatever the issue - no matter how urgent - they always seem to be 'working on it.'

If you want to kill any idea in the world, get a committee working on it.

The man whose life is devoted to paperwork has lost the initiative. He is dealing with things that are brought to his notice, having ceased to notice anything for himself.

There isn't much to say. I haven't been at all deedy.

I don't think it's the function of Congress to function well. It should drag its heels on the way to decision.

Many people are in a rut and a rut is nothing but a grave - with both ends kicked out.

There's so much in the 21st century that is stymied by bureaucracy and mediocrity and committee.

…dull, stupid, lazy, stinking people.

Should bureaucratic ways prevail and paper reign supreme? Should red tape and the Status Quo become our nation’s dream?

A conference is a gathering of important people who singly can do nothing, but together can decide that nothing can be done.

Common sense is not all that common in Washington DC.

[Characterizing Washington DC:] It's some sort of incestuous insane asylum where they just keep saying the same thing.

Getting the U. S. Government to do anything is like herding ducks with a broom.

The CIA is a stilted bureaucracy incapable of even the slightest bit of success.

Washington is not good at getting things done.

We don't want Welsh rugby to be seen as healthy or upbeat. If we think that, we could become complacent or stagnate.

In America, the political system just is paralyzed for whatever reason. Maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong, in that it's just become this giant blob bureaucracy, the primary objective is self-preservation, and the definition of self-preservation is don't do anything because then you continue to illustrate where you're needed.

This man will never finish anything. He thinks about the end before he thinks about the beginning.

Washington has become a place where good ideas come to die.

The only accountability-free zone in America: Washington DC.