The House of Lords must be the only institution in the world that is kept efficient by the persistent absenteeism of its members.

-Samuel, Herbert Louis, 1st Viscount Samuel
  In American News Review, 5 Feb.

An efficient organization is one in which the accounting department knows the exact cost of every useless administrative procedure which they themselves have initiated.

-Steacie, E W
Quoted byJ D Babbitt in his introduction to Steacie's Science in Canada (published posthumously,1965).