Quotes and Sayings about Competence
"For four years, I listened to stories of intelligence failures, and it wasn't due to incompetence of anyone in the system, but that the system is so arcane."
- Charles F. Bass
(Related: Intelligence, Incompetence, Years)
"But the technology was accessible, which suggests incompetence on the part of our counterintelligence community and the Clinton Administration, and may in fact rise to the level of treason."
- Charles Foster Bass
(Related: Technology, Community, Fact, Incompetence, May, Treason)
"Fathers and mothers have lost the idea that the highest aspiration they might have for their children is for them to be wise... specialized competence and success are all that they can imagine."
- Allan Bloom
(Related: Success, Idea, Children, Competence, Fathers, Mothers)
"Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence."
- Napoleon Bonaparte
(Related: Incompetence, Malice)
"The Republicans are running wild with our tax dollars and it's been a mistake to let this administration continue a policy of incompetence when it comes to Iraq."
- Sherrod Brown
(Related: Mistake, Policy, Tax, Incompetence, Iraq, Republicans, Running)
"Is puppy love the reason so many Americans are blind to the incompetence and waste of Republicans - who at a minimum are supposed to be good money managers - running Iraq reconstruction?"
- Margaret Carlson
(Related: Love, Money, Americans, Blind, Incompetence, Iraq, Managers, Reason, Republicans, Running, Waste)
"But then acting is all about faking. We're all very good at faking things that we have no competence with."
- John Cleese
(Related: Acting, Competence)
"That has always seemed to me one of the stranger aspects of literary fame: you prove your competence as a writer and an inventor of stories, and then people clamour for you to make speeches and tell them what you think about the world."
- J. M. Coetzee
(Related: People, Competence, Literary, World, Writer)
"It does not matter what party you are a member of in this great Nation of ours. Accountability and competence are characteristics that Americans value throughout our great land."
- Jim Costa
(Related: Americans, Competence, Land, Nation, Party, Value)
"You can't fake creativity, competence, or sexual arousal."
- Doug Coupland
(Related: Creativity, Competence)
"Our all-volunteer force continues to prove itself with a great level of professionalism, personal commitment and a technical competence that is quite remarkable."
- Geoff Davis
(Related: Commitment, Competence, Force, Remarkable)
"It has become almost a cliche 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
(Related: Science, Boasts, Ignorance, Incompetence, Literature, Mathematics)
"To create the power of competence without creating a corresponding direction to guide the use of that power is bad education."
- John S. Dickey
(Related: Education, Power, Competence, Direction)
"The end of education is to see men made whole, both in competence and in conscience."
- John S. Dickey
(Related: Education, Men, Competence, Conscience, End)
"A king, realizing his incompetence, can either delegate or abdicate his duties. A father can do neither. If only sons could see the paradox, they would understand the dilemma."
- Marlene Dietrich
(Related: Father, Incompetence, Paradox, Sons)
"Teaching is the only major occupation of man for which we have not yet developed tools that make an average person capable of competence and performance. In teaching we rely on the "naturals," the ones who somehow know how to teach."
- Peter Drucker
(Related: Performance, Competence, Occupation, Teaching, Tools)
"The criteria for serving one's country should be competence, courage and willingness to serve. When we deny people the chance to serve because of their sexual orientation, we deprive them of their rights of citizenship, and we deprive our armed forces the service of willing and capable Americans."
- Diane Feinstein
(Related: People, Courage, Americans, Chance, Citizenship, Competence, Country, Rights, Service)
"The problem is with men. I know I shouldn't say this, but they've shrouded and hidden women to hide their incompetence."
- John Galliano
(Related: Women, Incompetence)
"Told that the passing grade is a B or competence and that we will help you to get there, students do competent work. The lowest passing grade in the real world is competence. Why do schools accept so much less?"
- William Glasser
(Related: Work, Competence, Help, Schools, Students, Will, World)
"If you improve education by teaching for competence, eliminating schooling, and connecting with students, the test scores will improve."
- William Glasser
(Related: Education, Competence, Students, Teaching, Will)
"No human being will work hard at anything unless they believe that they are working for competence."
- William Glasser
(Related: Work, Being, Competence, Will)
"The U.N. has been so disappointing to date on the whole Rwanda issue that despite the people they've sent through, and I have no doubt their competence, in the end, the decision is going to be made by other people and not by them."
- Tony Greig
(Related: People, Decision, Competence, Doubt, End)
"Under-representation of women and other inequality among researchers is a problem that will not solve itself as women acquire competence."
- Tarja Halonen
(Related: Women, Competence, Inequality, Will)
"The Commission has five commissioners from each side, plus three alternates, so all together sixteen members, people who are independent from the two governments, who have a lot of integrity, professional competence, and who have credibility in their respective countries."
- Jose Ramos Horta
(Related: People, Competence, Countries, Credibility, Integrity)
"The only foes that threaten America are the enemies at home, and these are ignorance, superstition and incompetence."
- Elbert Hubbard
(Related: Home, America, Enemies, Ignorance, Incompetence, Superstition)
"In an age of incompetence, I've been able to last in this crazy business. I actually know how to play my ax and write a song. That's my job."
- Billy Joel
(Related: Age, Business, Incompetence, Job, Play, Song)
"I am, as I've said, merely competent. But in an age of incompetence, that makes me extraordinary."
- Billy Joel
(Related: Age, Incompetence)
"To address questions of scientific responsibility does not necessarily imply that one needs technical competence in a particular field (e.g. biology) to evaluate certain technical matters."
- Serge Lang
(Related: Competence, Evaluate, Needs, Questions, Responsibility)
"You basically have a group of four spies who are chosen for a mission they feel for the fact of how competent they are and how their expertise and they're the right one for the job. But ultimately they find out they've been actually chosen for their incompetence."
- Matt LeBlanc
(Related: Expertise, Fact, Incompetence, Job, Mission, Right)
"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
(Related: Success, Opportunity, Wealth, Competence, Man, Poor, Youth)
"The single most exciting thing you encounter in government is competence, because it's so rare."
- Daniel P. Moynihan
(Related: Government, Competence)
"If you look at the 19 hijackers who came to the United States in Sept. 11 to commit those acts, if you'd looked at them before they got onto a plane, you could probably say the same thing. There were various levels of expertise, various levels of competence."
- Robert Mueller
(Related: Competence, Expertise, states, United)
"Sincerity and competence is a strong combination. In politics, it is everything."
- Peggy Noonan
(Related: Politics, Competence, Sincerity)
"The incompetence regarding body and vehicle armor rises almost to a level of criminal negligence."
- John Olver
(Related: Body, Incompetence)
"There are, it is true, at present no great prizes in literature such as are offered by the learned professions, but there are quite as many small ones - competences; while, on the other hand, it is not so much of a lottery."
- James Payn
(Related: Literature, Present, Prizes)
"Luck is always the last refuge of laziness and incompetence."
- James Cash Penney
(Related: Incompetence, Laziness, Luck)
"Men now monopolize the upper levels... depriving women of their rightful share of opportunities for incompetence."
- Laurence J. Peter
(Related: Men, Women, Incompetence, Now)
"Competence, like truth, beauty, and contact lenses, is in the eye of the beholder."
- Laurence J. Peter
(Related: Beauty, Truth, Competence, Eye)
"Work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence."
- Laurence J. Peter
(Related: Work, Employees, Incompetence)
"Everyone rises to their level of incompetence."
- Laurence J. Peter
(Related: Incompetence)
"In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence."
- Laurence J. Peter
(Related: Incompetence)
"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
(Related: Evil, Incompetence, Office, Post)
"Burning dinner is not incompetence but war."
- Marge Piercy
(Related: War, Incompetence)
"It is undeniable that a woman's ability to stretch and pursue her total competence outside the home and get paid what she's worth for it makes for happier and more fulfilled women."
- Kyle D. Pruett
(Related: Home, Women, Ability, Competence, Woman, Worth)
"Marriage, laws, the police, armies and navies are the mark of human incompetence."
- Dora Russell
(Related: Marriage, Incompetence, Laws, Police)
"I have no idols. I admire work, dedication and competence."
- Ayrton Senna
(Related: Work, Competence, Dedication, Idols)
"There's a lot more to competence than a law degree and a modicum of courtroom skill."
- Fred Thompson
(Related: Competence, Law, Skill)
"The utter incompetence of the U.N. is literally incomprehensible."
- Malcolm Wallop
(Related: Incompetence)
"Man cannot live by incompetence alone."
- Charlotte Whitton
(Related: Incompetence, Man)
"Indeed, the woes of Software Engineering are not due to lack of tools, or proper management, but largely due to lack of sufficient technical competence."
- Niklaus Wirth
(Related: Management, Competence, Engineering, Software, Tools)
"In the lead up to the Iraq war and its later conduct, I saw at a minimum, true dereliction, negligence and irresponsibility, at worse, lying, incompetence and corruption."
- Anthony Zinni
(Related: War, Corruption, Incompetence, Iraq, Lying)