Ogburn, Charlton Jr -- “Merrill’s Marauders: The truth about an incredible adventure,” Harper’s Magazine (Jan 1957)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

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.

Charlton Ogburn, Jr. (1911-1998) American journalist, author
“Merrill’s Marauders: The truth about an incredible adventure,” Harper’s Magazine (Jan 1957)

In his 1959 book, The Marauders, Ogburn rephrased this as: "As a result, I suppose, of high-level changes of mind about how we were to be used, we went through several reorganizations. Perhaps because Americans as a nation have a gift for organizing, we tend to meet any new situation by reorganization, and a wonderful method it is for creating the illusion of progress at a mere cost of confusion, inefficiency and demoralization."

Sometimes incorrectly cited to Gaius Petronius Arbiter. For more on this quotation, see here.

Ogburn, Charlton Jr -- This Star of England, Forward (1952)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

It is not the business of art to follow reality. Reality follows art. When we gaze at a sunset, we do not see it “as it is” — as an amalgam of Copernicus’s vision of the earth’s revolution round the sun and Max Planck’s quantum theory of light. We see it through the eyes of generations of painters and poets who have infused into the spectacle the lofty symbol of aspiration and resignation or the grandeur of celestial harmony.

Charlton Ogburn, Jr. (1911-1998) American journalist, author
This Star of England, Forward (1952)

WIST Quotations

Ogburn, Charlton Jr -- “Merrill’s Marauders: The truth about an incredible adventure,” Harper’s Magazine (Jan 1957)

Ogburn, Charlton Jr -- This Star of England, Forward (1952)