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Bureaucracy Quotes

Why systems slow down, and why some still defend them.

This set of bureaucracy quotes ranges from calls to fight corruption and waste to reflections on how top-heavy institutional theaters can become. For more on public systems, see our America quotes.

I've worked in a few sort of 'institutional' theaters - the Royal Shakespeare, the National Theater in England - and they're hopelessly top-heavy with bureaucracy.

Quotes by Tim Curry

What comes after the revolution is inevitably bureaucracy. Whoever wins the revolution builds a bureaucracy.

Quotes by Sean Parker

I never saw a bureaucracy produce a single barrel of oil.

Quotes by Rex Tillerson

When people are dying, bureaucracy should be thrown out of the water.

Quotes by Ray Nagin

Able Quotes

Once we leave the E.U., we will be able to slash the £600 million of costs of Brussels bureaucracy that hold back our businesses.

Quotes by Priti Patel

We impugn the private sector, we impugn main street America, and the bureaucracy cannot be held to any different standard whatsoever.

Quotes by Paul Gosar

I really hate bureaucracy and the idea that I'm not a free person.

Quotes by Paloma Faith

We must fight against negativeness - especially bureaucracy, corruption and wastefulness.

Quotes by Nong Duc Manh

Bureaucracy, the rule of no one, has become the modern form of despotism.

Quotes by Mary McCarthy

After Quotes

Too many vital education dollars that should be spent in the classroom are bouncing around in the federal bureaucracy.

Quotes by Mark Kennedy

Bureaucracy is not an obstacle to democracy but an inevitable complement to it.

Quotes by Joseph A. Schumpeter

The disease which inflicts bureaucracy and what they usually die from is routine.

Quotes by John Stuart Mill

As a bureaucracy becomes more established, it develops its own career structure. It is less dependent, and should be less dependent, on individual personalities. Absolutely no one is indispensable.

Quotes by John Scarlett

A mayor is a symbol and a public face of what a city bureaucracy provides its citizens.

Quotes by John Hickenlooper

Always Quotes

We have to make bureaucracy sexy.

Quotes by Jennifer Pahlka

Well, just as the Supreme Court follows the election returns, you can bet that the bureaucracy does as well.

Quotes by James Woolsey

My knock with filmmaking is the whole bureaucracy around it, so in some ways, staying outside of it is easier for me.

Quotes by Harmony Korine

This always confuses liberals, that conservatives like the military and don't like the bureaucracy. That's because the military has their guns pointed out and the bureaucracy has them pointed in.

Quotes by Grover Norquist

We will downsize the government, motivate excess employees to become entrepreneurs, and increase the pay of a lean and mean bureaucracy.

Quotes by Gloria Macapagal Arroyo

America Quotes

I understand that bureaucracy, hierarchy and managing politics is not easy.

Quotes by Gautham Menon

Frequently Asked Questions

Are all these bureaucracy quotes critical of the concept?
Not entirely — while some call for fighting corruption and waste, one argues bureaucracy actually works alongside democracy as something the system inevitably needs, rather than an enemy of it.
Does this topic mention theater or the arts?
Yes, one quote recalls working in institutional theaters weighed down by excessive administrative layers.
What does the quote about routine and disease mean?
It suggests that bureaucratic systems are usually undone not by dramatic conflict but by the slow grind of routine itself.
Is corruption directly linked to bureaucracy here?
Yes, one quote groups bureaucracy together with corruption and wastefulness as things worth actively fighting against.
How does this topic relate to America's public institutions?
Since bureaucratic growth is often debated in the context of national institutions, our America quotes make a fitting companion read.

Other lines argue bureaucracy actually complements democracy rather than blocking it, while one calls routine its real disease. Explore our Always and Able quotes for related themes.