“Any sufficiently advanced bureaucracy is indistinguishable from molasses”

“Any sufficiently advanced bureaucracy is indistinguishable from molasses” is a jocular quotation that has been included in many quotations collections. The saying has been cited in print since at least 1993 and is of unknown authorship.
 
     
IFindKarma.com
Newsgroups: alt.quotations
Date: Sat, 20 Feb 1993 14:29:12 -0500
From: Nanci Ann Miller

Subject: Need authors for these!
Lines: 1104
(...)
Any sufficiently advanced bureaucracy is indistinguishable from molasses.
   
Google Groups: novell.community.chat
I spooed
Boogie Woogie Baritoneboy
10/18/03
(...)
Any sufficiently advanced bureaucracy is indistinguishable from molasses.
Unknown
   
Google Books
The Freedom Outlaw’s Handbook:
179 Things to Do ‘Til the Revolution
By Claire Wolfe
Boulder, CO: Paladin Press
2007
Pg. 142:
Any sufficiently advanced bureaucracy is indistinguishable from molasses. — Unknown
 
Google Books
Juggernaut
By Eric Robert Morse
New Classic Books (NewClassicBooks.com)
2010
Pg. 322:
Any sufficiently advanced bureaucracy is indistinguishable from molasses. —ANONYMOUS WIT (CIRCA 1980)
 
Google Books
The Snark Bible:
A Reference Guide to Verbal Sparring, Comebacks, Irony, Insults, and So Much More
Edited by Lawrence Dorfman
New York, NY: Skyhorse Publishing
2014
Pg. ?:
Who Knows Who Said It?
Any sufficiently advanced bureaucracy is indistinguishable from molasses.
 
Twitter
Cameron Morrissey
‏@ManagersDiary
“Any sufficiently advanced bureaucracy is indistinguishable from molasses.”—Anonymous #business #leadership
4:28 PM - 2 Nov 2014