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.
[Sometimes given as: We trained hard — but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we were reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing, and what a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while actually producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.]
Reprinted in The Maurauders, ch. 2 (1959). Commonly misattributed to Petronius Arbiter. Source: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charlton_Ogburn; http://www.harpers.org/archive/1957/01/0007289
