Author: Dr. Laurence J. Peter

America is a land of taxation that was founded to avoid taxation.

(1919 – 1990) educator & writer
America Places Taxes

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

(1919 – 1990) educator & writer
Government Time

Censor: A man who knows more than he thinks you ought to.

(1919 – 1990) educator & writer
Communication Definitions Language

The incompetent with nothing to do can still make a mess of it.

(1919 – 1990) educator & writer
Intelligence Problems Stupidity

Old age is when you know all the answers, but nobody asks you the questions.

(1919 – 1990) educator & writer
Age Definitions Old

I have to spend so much time explaining to Americans that I am not English and to Englishmen that I am not American that I have little time left to be Canadian.

(1919 – 1990) educator & writer
America Canada England Places

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

(1919 – 1990) educator & writer
Age

Irony is when you buy a suit with two pairs of pants, and then burn a hole in the coat.

(1919 – 1990) educator & writer
Situations

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

(1919 – 1990) educator & writer
Fools Intelligence Time Wisdom

Make three correct guesses consecutively and you will establish a reputation as an expert.

(1919 – 1990) educator & writer
Intelligence

A rut is a grave with the ends knocked out.

(1919 – 1990) educator & writer
Situations Things

Some problems are so complex that you have to be highly intelligent and well informed just to be undecided about them.

(1919 – 1990) educator & writer
Intelligence Problems

Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell, and advertise.

(1919 – 1990) educator & writer
Sleep Work

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

(1919 – 1990) educator & writer
Democracy Elections/Voting Government

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

(1919 – 1990) educator & writer
Appearance Characteristics

A pessimist is a man who looks both ways before crossing a one-way street.

(1919 – 1990) educator & writer
Characteristics People

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

(1919 – 1990) educator & writer
Intelligence Things

If a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind, what is the significance of a clean desk?

(1919 – 1990) educator & writer
Intelligence

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

(1919 – 1990) educator & writer
Intelligence

Work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence.

(1919 – 1990) educator & writer
Success Work

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

(1919 – 1990) educator & writer
People