Laurence J. Peter

If at first you don't succeed, lie, lie again.

— Laurence J. Peter

Lead, follow or get of the way

— Laurence J. Peter

Ignorance once dispelled is difficult to reestablish.

— Laurence J. Peter

A man convinced against his will is not convinced.

— Laurence J. Peter

If you can't keep up, drag them down to your level.

— Laurence J. Peter

Would the boy you were be proud of the man you are?

— Laurence J. Peter

Incompetence plus incompetence equals incompetence.

— Laurence J. Peter

The best intelligence test is what we do with our leisure.

— Laurence J. Peter

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

— Laurence J. Peter

We hate to have some people give us advice because we know how badly they need it themselves.

— Laurence J. Peter

Don't knock the rich. When did a poor person give you a job?

— 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

Two can live as cheaply as one - if they both have good jobs.

— Laurence J. Peter

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

— Laurence J. Peter

In most hierarchies, supercompetence is more objectionable than incompetence.

— Laurence J. Peter

In spite of warnings, nothing much happens until the status quo becomes more painful than change.

— Laurence J. Peter

Democracy is a process by which the people are free to choose the man who will get the blame. Education is a…

— Laurence J. Peter

Cleaning anything involves making something else dirty, but anything can get dirty without something else getting clean.

— Laurence J. Peter

“Employees in a hierarchy do not really object to incompetence (Peter’s Paradox): they merely gossip about incompetence to mask their envy of…

— Laurence J. Peter

Bore : A fellow who can change the subject back to his topic of conversation faster than you can change it back…

— Laurence J. Peter

“He must examine his objectives and see that true progress is achieved through moving forward to a better way of life, rather…

— Laurence J. Peter

Prejudice is one of the world's greatest labor-saving devices; it enables you to form an opinion without having to dig up the…

— Laurence J. Peter

We are members of a strange species that devotes its energies to climbing the ladder of success in order to make money…

— Laurence J. Peter

When I want your opinion I'll give it to you.

— Laurence J. Peter

He laughs best whose laugh lasts.

— Laurence J. Peter

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

— Laurence J. Peter

Men now monopolize the upper levels... depriving women of their rightful share of opportunities for incompetence.

— Laurence J. Peter

There are two kinds of egotists: Those who admit it, and the rest of us

— Laurence J. Peter

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

— Laurence J. Peter

The seaman tells stories of winds, the ploughman of bulls; the soldier details his wounds, the shepherd his sheep.

— Laurence J. Peter

Middle age is when anything new in the way you feel is most likely a symptom.

— Laurence J. Peter

It's better to have loved and lost than to have to do forty pounds of laundry a week.

— Laurence J. Peter

A true friend will see you through when others see that you are through.

— Laurence J. Peter

The man who believes he can do it is probably right, and so is the man who believes he can't.

— Laurence J. Peter

Many an optimist has become rich simply by buying out a pessimist.

— Laurence J. Peter

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

— Laurence J. Peter

Middle age is when you stop criticizing the older generation and start criticizing the younger one.

— Laurence J. Peter

. . . if you can tell the difference between good advice and bad advice, you don't need advice.

— 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

Only mediocrities rise to the top in a system that won't tolerate wave making.

— Laurence J. Peter