Judging Competence

Sunday, January 8, 2017 – Judging 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

There is a power in public opinion in this country – and I thank God for it, for it is the most honest and best of all powers – which will not tolerate an incompetent or unworthy man to hold in his weak or wicked hands the lives and fortunes of his fellow-citizens. ~ Martin Van Buren

I am not fit for this office and never should have been here. ~ Warren G. Harding

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

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

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

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

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

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

There are three kinds of intelligence: one kind understands things for itself, the other appreciates what others can understand, the third understands neither for itself nor through others. This first kind is excellent, the second good, and the third kind useless. ~ Niccolo Machiavelli

It has become almost a cliché to remark that nobody boasts of ignorance of literature, but it is socially acceptable to boast ignorance of science and proudly claim incompetence in mathematics. ~ Richard Dawkins

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

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

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

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

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

If you can do a half-assed job of anything, you’re a one-eyed man in a kingdom of the blind. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

Man cannot live by incompetence alone. ~ Charlotte Whitton

A distinguished clergyman told me that he chose the profession of a clergyman because it afforded the most leisure for literary pursuits. I would recommend to him the profession of a governor. ~ Henry David Thoreau

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

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

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

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

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

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

If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live. ~ Lin Yutang

I’ve been told that I’m incompetent, socially retarded, maladjusted. I still know that I couldn’t function in reality. Los Angeles is a good place for me. ~ Diablo Cody

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