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Your Quotes for 16 September 2005 - Laurence J. Peter

The Canadian educator Laurence Johnston Peter was born on this day in 1919. During his career he had the opportunity to observe a wide range of bureaucracies, and his best-known conclusion was the Peter Principle: "In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence." Here are a few of his other observations.

A rut is a grave with the ends knocked out.

An optimist expects his dreams to come true; a pessimist expects his nightmares to.

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

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

Man lives by praise; most of us would rather be hurt by flattery than helped by criticism.

Some problems are so complex that you have to be highly intelligent and well informed just to be undecided about them.
     - All from Laurence J. Peter, 1919 - 1990

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