Laurence J. Peter

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

Everyone rises to their level of incompetence.

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

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

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

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

An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn't happen today.

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

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

Fortune knocks but once, but misfortune has much more patience.

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.

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

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

All science is concerned with the relationship of cause and effect. Each scientific discovery increases man's ability to predict the consequences of his actions and thus his ability to control future events.

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

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

There is no stigma attached to recognizing a bad decision in time to install a better one.