Laurence J. Peter Quotes

Against logic there is no armor like ignorance.

Good followers do not become good leaders.

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

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.

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

The more conceited members of the race think in terms of an endless ascent — or promotion ad infinitum. I would point out that, sooner or later, man must reach his level of life-incompetence.

If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?

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

You will see that in every hierarchy the cream rises until it sours.

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.

true progress is achieved through moving forward to a better way of life, rather than upward to total life incompetence.

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)

Nobody understands how the incessant pressure from above and the incurable incompetence below make it utterly impossible for me to do an adequate job and keep a clean desk.

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

In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.