Hierarchical Structure Quotes

Heaven cannot support two suns, nor earth two masters, nor Asia two kings

Bureaucracy is the epoxy that greases the wheels of progress.

I know that men are not equal; nowhere on the earth or in Nature is there equality—there is variety .... The natural variety must be organized through the division and gradation of functions and work; no organization of men is possible without superiors and subordinates, but it must just be an organization, and not a privilege, not aristocratic coercion but mutual service.

My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of the higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military.

If through any misunderstanding or obstinacy on the part of the Fire Keepers, they render a decision at variance with that of the Two Houses, the Two Houses shall reconsider the matter and if their decisions are jointly the same as before, they shall report to the Fire Keepers who are then compelled to confirm their joint decision

Civilization is always in danger when those who have never learned to obey are given the right to command.

Those who would be thought the rulers of the church arrogate to themselves a license to speak whatsoever they please, and to insist that as soon as they have spoken they shall be implicitly obeyed.

My duty is to obey orders.

Once a bishop is appointed, in terms of governance, we are semi-autonomous. It's not like we are branch managers of a bank or something.

The 19 hijackers that came over here to commit the attack on Sept. 11, there were those that were at the bottom of the line. There were those who were the principal conspirators. There were those who were the pilot. Everybody has a role.

Always mistrust a subordinate who never finds fault with his superior.

Policy bubbles up from the bottom. Decisions are made at the top.

Nobody really likes large-scale organizations; nobody likes to take orders from a superior who takes orders from a superior who takes orders.

Bottom up democracy is hard for our leaders to accept. It is cultural. Chinese culture is based on the family. The daddy makes all the big decisions for everyone. It is top down.

There are two principles by which the world is ruled: the authority of priests and the royal power. The authority of priests is the greater because God will demand an accounting of them even in regard to kings.

I have this rule. It's called 'Top Dog-Underdog:' Underdog gets to make fun of Top Dog, but Top Dog can't make fun of Underdog. But you know what? You get Top Dog, you get to be Top Dog. Congratulations! And that dynamic happens not just in race but in many different ways. It's like the male-female dynamic.

The hierarchy plays out in the writers room, and you, as a staff writer, need to know your place.

When his noblemen are in his presence, they never look him in the face, but sit cowering, as we upon our knees, so they upon their buttocks with their elbows upon their knees and their hands before their faces, not looking up until the king command them. And when they are coming toward the king, as far as they do see him they do show such reverence, sitting on the ground with their faces covered as before. Likewise, when they depart from him, they turn not their backs toward him, but go creeping backward with like reverence.

In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.

The first organization structure in the modern West was laid down in the canon law of the Catholic Church eight hundred years ago.

As in the Divine Right of Kings, hierarchies invest those who preside at the top of their pyramidal structure with absolute power to rule over the lesser ranks that spread down like a marble staircase to the broad foundation stones of those with no power at all.

Government tends to believe in top-down solutions, and government fears of bottom-up solutions.

We need a pope to oversee not simply a modernization of the church but its total transformation.

In China, you have to have a strong leader for a business to get anything done.

To the shepherds alone was given all power to teach, to judge, to direct; on the faithful was imposed the duty of following their teaching, of submitting with docility to their judgment, and of allowing themselves to be governed, corrected, and guided by them in the way of salvation. Thus, it is an absolute necessity for the simple faithful to submit in mind and heart to their own pastors, and for the latter to submit with them to the Head and Supreme Pastor.