Laurence J. Peter Quotes

43 Sourced Quotes

Some problems are so complex that you have to be highly intelligent and well informed just to be undecided about them.

Laurence J. Peter
Originality is the fine art of remembering what you hear but forgetting where you heard it.

Laurence J. Peter
Psychiatry enables us to correct our faults by confessing our parents' shortcomings.

Laurence J. Peter
The only valid rule about the proper length of a statement is that it achieve its purpose effectively.

Laurence J. Peter
In every organization there is a considerable accumulation of dead wood in the executive level.

Laurence J. Peter
Bureaucracy defends the status quo long past the time when the quo has lost its status.

Laurence J. Peter
Incompetence plus incompetence equals incompetence

Laurence J. Peter
When you see yourself quoted in print and you're sorry you said it, it suddenly becomes a misquotation.

Laurence J. Peter
If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?

Laurence J. Peter
Slump, and the world slumps with you. Push, and you push alone.

Laurence J. Peter
Most hierarchies are nowadays so cumbered with rules and traditions, and so bound in by public laws, that even high employees do not have to lead anyone anywhere, in the sense of pointing out the direction and setting the pace. They simply follow precedents, obey regulations, and move at the head of the crowd. Such employees lead only in the sense that the curved wooden figurehead leads the ship.

Laurence J. Peter
Every girl should use what Mother Nature gave her before Father Time takes it away.

Laurence J. Peter
Noblest of all dogs is the hot-dog; it feeds the hand that bites it.

Laurence J. Peter
Competence, like truth, beauty, and contact lenses, is in the eye of the beholder.

Laurence J. Peter
A censor is a man who knows more than he thinks you ought to.

Laurence J. Peter
Some Blockett-type employees actually believe that they have received a genuine promotion; others recognize the truth. But the main function of a pseudo-promotion is to deceive people outside the hierarchy. When this is achieved, the maneuver is counted a success.

Laurence J. Peter
Tact is the art of putting your foot down without stepping on anyone's toes.

Laurence J. Peter
The machinery of government is a vast series of interlocking hierarchies riddled through and through with incompetence.

Laurence J. Peter
The habitually punctual make all their mistakes right on time.

Laurence J. Peter
Never stand when you can sit; never walk when you can ride; never Push when you can Pull.

Laurence J. Peter
Lateral Arabesque—a pseudo-promotion consisting of a new title and a new work place.

Laurence J. Peter
Egypt: Where the Israelites would still be if Moses had been a bureaucrat.

Laurence J. Peter
In the country of the blind, the one-eyed king can still goof up.

Laurence J. Peter
I inherited my ability from both parents; my mother's ability for spending money, and my father's ability for not earning it.

Laurence J. Peter
America is a country that doesn't know where it is going but is determined to set a speed record getting there.

Laurence J. Peter