Competence

Sunday, November 21, 2010 – Competence

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

The single most exciting thing you encounter in government is competence, because it’s so rare. ~ Daniel P. Moynihan

To many a man, and sometimes to a youth, there comes the opportunity to choose between honorable competence and tainted wealth. The young man who starts out to be poor and honorable, holds in his hand one of the strongest elements of success. ~ Orison Swett Marden

You can’t fake creativity, competence, or sexual arousal. ~ Doug Coupland

Never ascribe to malice that which can adequately be explained by incompetence. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte

Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few. ~ George Bernard Shaw

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. ~ Isaac Asimov

A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything. Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity. ~ Robert A. Heinlein

It is a good idea to “shop around” before you settle on a doctor. Ask about the condition of his Mercedes. Ask about the competence of his mechanic. Don’t be shy! After all, you’re paying for it. ~ Dave Barry

I would rather have five energetic and competent enemies than one fool friend. ~ Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

I would rather have a competent extremist than an incompetent moderate. ~ Leon Jaworski

I wish the government would put a tax on pianos for the incompetent. ~ Dame Edith Sitwell

Laziness has become the chief characteristic of journalism, displacing incompetence. ~ Kingsley Amis

Hardly a competent workman can be found who does not devote a considerable amount of time to studying just how slowly he can work and still convince his employer that he is going at a good pace. ~ Frederick W. Taylor

Housework is the only activity at which men are allowed to be consistently inept because they are thought to be so competent at everything else. ~ Letty Cottin Pogrebin

I am, as I’ve said, merely competent. But in an age of incompetence, that makes me extraordinary. ~ Billy Joel

A military operation involves deception. Even though you are competent, appear to be incompetent. Though effective, appear to be ineffective. ~ Sun Tzu

Man cannot live by incompetence alone. ~ Charlotte Whitton

Education is the inculcation of the incomprehensible into the indifferent by the incompetent. ~ John Maynard Keynes

Marriage, laws, the police, armies and navies are the mark of human incompetence. ~ Dora Russell

The way I understand it, the Russians are sort of a combination of evil and incompetence… sort of like the Post Office with tanks. ~ Emo Philips

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

I find it rather easy to portray a businessman. Being bland, rather cruel and incompetent comes naturally to me. ~ John Cleese

If every day a man takes orders in silence from an incompetent superior, if every day he solemnly performs ritual acts which he privately finds ridiculous, if he unhesitatingly gives answers to questionnaires which are contrary to his real opinions and is prepared to deny his own self in public, if he sees no difficulty in feigning sympathy or even affection where, in fact, he feels only indifference or aversion, it still does not mean that he has entirely lost the use of one of the basic human senses, namely, the sense of humiliation. ~ Vaclav Havel

He attacked everything in life with a mix of extraordinary genius and naive incompetence, and it was often difficult to tell which was which. ~ Douglas Adams

The English think incompetence is the same thing as sincerity. ~ Quentin Crisp

We may seem competent, but by the end of next century there will be new deserts, new ruins. ~ Edward Bond

Obscurity and competence – that is the life that is best worth living. ~ Mark Twain