Quote of the day 28th September 2018

“I divide my officers into four classes as follows: The clever, the industrious, the lazy, and the stupid.

Each officer always possesses two of these qualities. 

  • 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.”

(German General Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord, who was chief of the German General Staff from 1930 to 1933, was apparently quoted as having said this in a Berlin newspaper in the early 1930s.

Hammerstein-Equord left his post in 1933 because he was an opponent of the Nazis.



There is a modern NHS version of this saying referenced here.)


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