quotations about competence
To know one's own limitations is the hallmark of competence.
DOROTHY L. SAYERS
Thrones, Dominations
Your confidence kills your fears when they appear. Your competence makes them not to appear at all.
ISRAELMORE AYIVOR
Let's Go to the Next Level
I could do a good imitation of a competent young woman.
MARGARET ATWOOD
Moral Disorder
It is the curse of the competent--not to be called upon.
ROBERT PRIEST
Reading the Bible Backwards
She had always looked for sparks of competence, like a diamond prospector in an unpromising wasteland.
AYN RAND
Atlas Shrugged
Any idiot with a nickel's worth of talent can emerge from a writing class able to write a competent story. In fact, so many people can now write competent stories that the short story as a medium is in danger of dying of competence.
FLANNERY O'CONNOR
Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose
Pride in office without competence is as much a sin as competence without confidence.
PETER TREMAYNE
Shroud for the Archbishop
I am, as I've said, merely competent. But in an age of incompetence, that makes me extraordinary.
BILLY JOEL
commencement address at Berklee College of Music, 1993
Let him who is blessed with a competency wish for nothing more.
HORACE
attributed, Day's Collacon
For competence of life I will allow you
That lack of means enforce you not to evil;
And as we hear you do reform yourselves,
We will, according to your strength and qualities,
Give you advancement.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Henry IV, Part II
Competency is such a rare bird in these woods that I always appreciate it when I see it.
KEVIN SPACEY
House of Cards
Competence is the creed of the technocrat who makes sure the gears mesh but doesn't for a second understand the magic of the machine.
GEORGE H.W. BUSH
acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, August 18, 1988
Competence, like truth, beauty and contact lenses, is in the eye of the beholder.
LAURENCE J. PETER
The Peter Principle
You took my competence
Too many bruises
Too many hits to take
A broken promise
Another scar to mend
BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE
"Piece of Me"
Labor turns out at six o'clock, and with busy pen or ringing hammer lays the foundation of a competence.
COBDEN
attributed, Forty Thousand Quotations, Prose and Poetical
Everybody's got a different circle of competence. The important thing is not how big the circle is. The important thing is staying inside the circle.
WARREN BUFFETT
MBA talk, 2007
I actually think this election is going to be about competence. I'm a very competent person, okay? ... Inequality is going to be a big issue, but competence is going to be the biggest issue. They want somebody that's super-competent and that's me.
DONALD TRUMP
interview, The Economist, September 3, 2015
To the degree that a man is competent, he survives. To the degree he is incompetent, he perishes.
L. RON HUBBARD
The Way to Happiness
When we are asked to act, we do so only if we feel at least minimally competent to do what is asked of us. We need to feel that our actions will ultimately be successful. Without some expectation of success, we are unlikely to act at all and will rather resign ourselves to letting fate take its course. We often redirect our thinking from our actual goals to the goal of preserving a sense of our competence. This act of self-protection is essential to maintaining a minimum capacity to act.
DIETRICH DÖRNER
The Logic of Failure
Confidence is the public face of competence.
RON SUSKIND
Confidence Men