Laurence Peter Quotes & Sayings

There are two sorts of losers - the good loser, and the one who can't act. — Laurence J. Peter

Marriage is a good deal like taking a bath-not so hot once you get accustomed to it. — Laurence J. Peter

If you can tell the difference between good advice and bad advice, you don't need advice. — Laurence J. Peter

My problem is I say what I'm thinking before I think what I'm saying. — Laurence J. Peter

Expert: a man who makes three correct guesses consecutively. — Laurence J. Peter

I inherited my ability from both parents; my mother's ability for spending money, and my father's ability for not earning it. — Laurence J. Peter

As the farmer said, I'm not greedy, all I want is the land next to mine. — Laurence J. Peter

Peter's Principle: In an organization, each person rises to the level of his own incompetence. — Laurence J. Peter

The problem with temptation is that you may not get another chance. — 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

Man's First Mistake: The Wheel — Laurence J. Peter

The man who says he is willing to meet you halfway is usually a poor judge of distance. — Laurence J. Peter

When in doubt or danger, run in circles, scream and shout. — Laurence J. Peter

Middle age is when the best exercise is one of discretion. — Laurence J. Peter

May your happiest days of the past be your saddest days of your future. — Laurence J. Peter

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

The devil could change. He was once an angel and may be evolving still. — Laurence J. Peter

Middle age is when it takes longer to rest than to get tired. — Laurence J. Peter

You shouldn't punish others for your own choices. — Laurence J. Peter

When you see yourself quoted in print and you're sorry you said it, it suddenly becomes a misquotation. — Laurence J. Peter

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

The man who is always waving the flag usually waives what it stands for. — Laurence J. Peter

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

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. — Laurence J. Peter

Going to church doesn't make you any more a Christian than going to the garage makes you a car. — Laurence J. Peter

Psychiatry enables us to correct our faults by confessing our parents' shortcomings. — Laurence J. Peter

Against logic there is no armor like ignorance. — Laurence J. Peter

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

A bore is a person who lights up the room simply by leaving it. — Laurence J. Peter

Education is a method whereby one acquires a higher grade of prejudices. — Laurence J. Peter

Even if I hadn't been cast as Doctor Who, my acting would probably have been influenced by William Hartnell or Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, and all of the other guys. Because those were the actors that I really watched every moment of, as opposed to Laurence Olivier. — Peter Capaldi

Noblest of all dogs is the hot-dog; it feeds the hand that bites it. — Laurence J. Peter

If you can't keep up, drag them down to your level. — Laurence J. Peter

Heredity is what sets the parents of a teenager wondering about each other. — Laurence J. Peter

If at first you don't succeed, lie, lie again. — Laurence J. Peter

Don't believe in miracles - depend on them. — Laurence J. Peter

A man convinced against his will is not convinced. — Laurence J. Peter

The incompetent with nothing to do can still make a mess of it. — Laurence J. Peter

Pop managers are fixed in the dramatic stock character repertoire too, ever since the first British pop film musical, Wolf Mankowitz's 'Expresso Bongo' of 1959, with Cliff Richard as Bongo Herbert and Laurence Harvey as his manager. The key components were cast as X parts gay, X parts Jewish and triple X opportunistic. — Peter York

Every man serves a useful purpose: a miser, for example, makes a wonderful ancestor. — Laurence J. Peter

The machinery of government is a vast series of interlocking hierarchies riddled through and through with incompetence. — Laurence J. Peter

One time in the late '50s, when Peter Finch, Laurence Harvey, and I were all offered the same movie role - the assumption being that we weren't friends - we marched up to producer Dino De Laurentiis's door and declared in unison, 'We don't think we're suitable for the part.' — Peter O'Toole

Political success is the ability, when the inevitable occurs, to get credit for it. — Laurence J. Peter

A censor is an expert in cutting remarks. A censor is a man who knows more than he thinks you ought to. — Laurence J. Peter

The surest sign that you haven't any sense is to argue with one who hasn't. — 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 facts. — Laurence J. Peter

I've worked with some terrific actors. The list of guys that came on the 'Columbo' show, I mean they were world-class actors from all over the world - Oskar Werner, Laurence Harvey, Donald Pleasence, you know ... foreigners. — Peter Falk

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

Equal opportunity means everyone will have a fair chance at being incompetent. — Laurence J. Peter

They lead only as the carved wooden figurehead leads the ship. — 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

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. — Laurence J. Peter

An employee's relationship - by blood, marriage or acquaintance - with a person above him in the hierarchy. — Laurence J. Peter

If two wrongs don't make a right, try three. — Laurence J. Peter

The cave-dweller's wife complained that he hadn't dragged her anywhere in months. — Laurence J. Peter

He laughs best whose laugh lasts. — Laurence J. Peter

Give a child enough rope and he will trip you up. — Laurence J. Peter

Competence, like truth, beauty, and contact lenses, is in the eye of the beholder. — Laurence J. Peter

Make three correct guesses consecutively and you will establish a reputation as an expert. — Laurence J. Peter

Many live by their wits but few by their wit. — Laurence J. Peter

You could generally inform a real close friend: when you have manufactured a idiot of on your own he does not truly feel you've finished a long lasting job. — Laurence J. Peter

In the country of the blind, the one-eyed king can still goof up. — Laurence J. Peter

Aristotle's axiom: The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal. — Laurence J. Peter

Committees have become so important nowadays that subcommittees have to be appointed to do the work. — Laurence J. Peter

Three Observations 1) The computer may be incompetent in itself - that is, unable to do regularly and accurately the work for which it was designed. This kind of incompetence can never be eliminated, because the Peter Principle applies in the plants where computers are designed and manufactured. 2) Even when competent in itself, the computer vastly magnifies the results of incompetence in its owners or operators. 3) The computer, like a human employee, is subject to the Peter Principle. If it does good work at first, there is a strong tendency to promote it to more responsible tasks, until it reaches its level of incompetence. — Laurence J. Peter

Competition in academia is so vicious because the stakes are so small. — Laurence J. Peter

Poetry is that which is lost in translation. — Laurence J. Peter

There are two kinds of failures: those who thought and never did, and those who did and never thought — Laurence J. Peter

Many a man, under the old and the new systems, has made the upward step from candidate to legislator, only to achieve his level of incompetence. — Laurence J. Peter

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

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

If the outcome is good, what's the difference between motives that sound good and good, sound motives? — Laurence J. Peter

Egypt: Where the Israelites would still be if Moses had been a bureaucrat. — 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 to buy things we don't like. — Laurence J. Peter

The advantage of modern means of communication is they enable you to worry about things in all of the world — Laurence J. Peter

Slump, and the world slumps with you. Push and you push alone. — Laurence J. Peter

Good followers do not become good leaders. — 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 than upward to total life incompetence. — Laurence J. Peter

A lawyer is a man who helps you get what is coming to him. — Laurence J. Peter

Humility is the embarrassment you feel when you tell people how wonderful you are. — Laurence J. Peter

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

The computer may be incompetent in itself
that is, unable to do the work for which it was designed. This kind of incompetence can never be eliminated, because the Peter Principle applies in the plants where computers are designed and manufactured. — Laurence J. Peter

Don't worry about middle age: you'll outgrow it. — Laurence J. Peter

If at first you don't succeed, you may be at your level of incompetence already. — Laurence J. Peter

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

The unexpected always happens. — Laurence J. Peter

Before publishers' blurbs were invented, authors had to make their reputations by writing. — Laurence J. Peter

Middle age is when you stop criticizing the older generation and start criticizing the younger one. — Laurence J. Peter

Computers can solve all kinds of problems except the unemployment problem they create. — 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

The reason crime doesn't pay is that when it does, it is called a more respectable name. — Laurence J. Peter

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

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

In time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out its duties. — Laurence J. Peter

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. — Laurence J. Peter

Incompetence," he argued, "knows no barrier of time or place. — Laurence J. Peter

Lead, follow or get of the way — Laurence J. Peter

Ignorance once dispelled is difficult to reestablish. — Laurence J. Peter

The best intelligence test is what we do with our leisure. — Laurence J. Peter