Thursday, November 1, 2018

AN ETERNAL VERITY

I had occasion to remember this quote this morning and repeated it for one who had never heard it before, so I thought, why not put it into this fount of knowledge I maintain.
"Those who are clever and industrious I appoint to the General Staff. 
Use can under certain circumstances be made of those who are stupid and lazy. 
The man who is clever and lazy qualifies for the highest leadership posts. He has the requisite nerves and the mental clarity for difficult decisions. 
But whoever is stupid and industrious must be got rid of, for he is too dangerous.”
This really applies to all organizations and not just the armed forces.

4 comments:

OldAFSarge said...

This is brilliant!

The stupid and industrious are legion.

HMS Defiant said...

It's rather trying sometimes to find a niche for them where they can do no harm by exercising their initiative and stupidity together to make your life a living hell.

virgil xenophon said...

IIRC it was a German General Staff officer who first formulated this dictum. no?

HMS Defiant said...

A bunch of them.

When you think about it, Germany was formed our of a thousand states and all of them had little pocahontas' eager to make a name in the nascent army. They all wanted to be Prussian. There was an awful lot of stupid lying fallow.