Against logic there is no armor like ignorance.
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
An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn't happen today.
Laurence J. Peter
An intelligence test sometimes shows a man how smart he would have been not to have taken it.
Laurence J. Peter
Bureaucracy defends the status quo long past the time when the quo has lost its status.
Laurence J. Peter
Democracy is a process by which the people are free to choose the man who will get the blame.
Laurence J. Peter
Education is a method whereby one acquires a higher grade of prejudices.
Laurence J. Peter
Equal opportunity means everyone will have a fair chance at being incompetent.
Laurence J. Peter
Every man serves a useful purpose: A miser, for example, makes a wonderful ancestor.
Laurence J. Peter
Humility is the embarrassment you feel when you tell people how wonderful you are.
Laurence J. Peter
If a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind, what is the significance of a clean desk?
Laurence J. Peter
If you don't know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.
Laurence J. Peter
In spite of the cost of living, it's still popular.
Laurence J. Peter
It is wise to remember that you are one of those who can be fooled some of the time.
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
Real, constructive mental power lies in the creative thought that shapes your destiny, and your hour-by-hour mental conduct produces power for change in your life. Develop a train of thought on which to ride. The nobility of your life as well as your happiness depends upon the direction in which that train of thought is going.
Laurence J. Peter
Speak when you are angry--and you will make the best speech you'll ever regret.
Laurence J. Peter
The incompetent with nothing to do can still make a mess of it.
Laurence J. Peter
The man who says he is willing to meet you halfway is usually a poor judge of distance.
Laurence J. Peter
There is no stigma attached to recognizing a bad decision in time to install a better one.
Laurence J. Peter
Everyone rises to their level of incompetence.
Laurence J. Peter, "The Peter Principle"
Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to believe.
Laurence J. Peter, misquoting Sir Walter Scott
Competence, like truth, beauty and contact lenses, is in the eye of the beholder.
Laurence J. Peter, The Peter Principle (1969), chapter 1
