Quotes from 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.

You don't need to take a persons advice to make him feel good, just ask him for it.

A man doesn't know what he knows until he knows what he doesn't know.

Good followers do not become good leaders.

The incompetent with nothing to do can still make a mess of it.

Work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence.

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

An intelligence test sometimes shows a man how smart he would have been not to have taken it.

The man who is always waving the flag usually waives what it stands for.

Education is a method whereby one acquires a higher grade of prejudices.

Humility is the embarrassment you feel when you tell people how wonderful you are.

Equal opportunity means everyone will have a fair chance at being incompetent.

in most hierarchies, super-competence is more objectionable than incompetence." He warned that extremely skilled and productive employees often face criticism, and are fired if they don't start performing worse. Their presence "disrupts and therefore violates the first commandment of hierarchical life: the hierarchy must be preserved.

It is wise to remember that you are one of those who can be fooled some of the time.

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.

As individuals we tend to climb to our levels of incompetence. We behave as though up is better and more is better, and yet all around us we see the tragic victims of this mindless escalation.

If you don't know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.

Political success is the ability, when the inevitable occurs, to get credit for it.

Any government, whether it is a democracy, a dictatorship, a communistic or free enterprise bureaucracy, will fall when its hierarchy reaches an intolerable state of maturity.

Given enough time—and assuming the existence of enough ranks in the hierarchy—each employee rises to, and remains at, his level of incompetence.

He must examine his objectives and see that true progress is achieved through moving forward to a better way of life, rather than upward to total life incompetence.

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

Know, all the good that individuals find, Or God and Nature meant to mere Mankind, Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of Sense, Lie in three words, Health, Peace, and Competence. (Ibid., 11. 77–80)

Don't believe in miracles - depend on them.