Laurence J. Peter

“You can always tell a real friend: when you've made a fool of yourself he doesn't feel you've done a permanent job.”

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

“Bureaucracy defends the status quo long past the time when the quo has lost its status.”

“Competence, like truth, beauty, and contact lenses, is in the eye of the beholder.”

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

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

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

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

“A man convinced against his will is not convinced.”

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

“Everyone rises to their level of incompetence.”

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

“Nobody can be perfect unless he admits his faults, but if he has faults how can he be perfect?”

“Before publishers' blurbs were invented, authors had to make their reputations by writing.”

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

“אם אינך יודע לאן אתה הולך, כנראה תגיע למקום אחר.”

“פסימיסט מסתכל לשני הצדדים כשהוא חוצה כביש חד סיטרי.”

“חינוך היא שיטה המאפשרת השגת רמה גבוהה יותר של דעות קדומות.”

“אין כל ערובה לכך שעובד אשר מילא בנאמנות תפקידים אחדים, מסוגל למלא ביעילות תפקידים רבים. זוהי נקודת התורפה העיקרית של ההירארכיה ושל תהליך הקידום בדרגה.”

“בתוך הירארכיה ניכרת נטייה אצל כל עובד לעלות ולהגיע לרמת אי־היעילות שלו. כל משרה נוטה להיתפש על ידי פקיד שאינו מוכשר למלא את תפקידו.”