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

—Laurence J. Peter

change bureaucracy status quo inertia

About Laurence J. Peter

Portrait of Laurence J. Peter

Laurence Johnston Peter (September 16, 1919 – January 12, 1990) was a Canadian educator and "hierarchiologist" who is best known to the general public for the formulation of the Peter principle.

More quotations from 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

certainty USA direction determination speed

It's better to have loved and lost than to have to do forty pounds of laundry a week.

—Laurence J. Peter

love humor loss laundry chores

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

—Laurence J. Peter

intelligence knowledge competence

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

—Laurence J. Peter

mistakes incompetence

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

—Laurence J. Peter

memory innovation creativity forgetting originality

More quotations tagged with “bureaucracy”

Whether the mask is labeled Fascism, Democracy, or Dictatorship of the Proletariat, our great adversary remains the Apparatus—the bureaucracy, the police, the military. Not the one facing us across the frontier or the battle lines,… but the one that calls itself our protector and makes us its slaves. No matter what the circumstances, the worst betrayal will always be to subordinate ourselves to this Apparatus, and to trample underfoot, in its service, all human values in ourselves and in others.

democracy bureaucracy

There is no passion like that of a functionary for his function.

—Georges Clemenceau

work passion bureaucracy

Bureaucrats write memoranda both because they appear to be busy when they are writing and because the memos, once written, immediately become proof that they were busy.

—Charles Peters

The perfect bureaucrat everywhere is the man who manages to make no decisions and escape all responsibility.

—Brooks Atkinson

escape responsibility decisions bureaucracy

If you want to kill any idea in the world, get a committee working on it.

—Charles Kettering

ideas committees bureaucracy

History

8 Dec 2014 Added