I'm looking for the source of a quotation that goes something like
this: "only in an organization this small can issues be so
acrimonious." The sense of it is that in small organizations,
infighting is more probable.

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Request for Question Clarification by justaskscott-ga on 24 Sep 2004 09:07 PDT

"University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so
small."  This phrase is widely attributed to Henry Kissinger, though
he may not have said it.

I have found a good post about the phrase, including an alternative
origin.  If you're interested, I will post it as an answer.

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Clarification of Question by nautico-ga on 28 Sep 2004 07:17 PDT

That's it! Please post as an answer.

Hi nautico,

There are variations on this quotation, such as substituting
"academic" for "university."  The following post collects three views
about the quotation:

Barbara J. Davis, "Henry Kissinger Quote Responses", online posting (09/02/03)
Archive of the Law-Lib Electronic Discussion List hosted by University
of California, Davis, School of Law Library
http://lawlibrary.ucdavis.edu/LAWLIB/Sept03/0006.html

- justaskscott


Search terms used on Google:

"stakes are so small"
shapiro [Note: Fred Shapiro is a frequent commenter on quotations]

I used other search terms as well, but the ones listed above led me to
the page I have cited.

Thanks!