Competence Quotes - Page 8

• The only way one should buy stocks is if you understand the underlying business. You stay within the circle of competence. You buy businesses you understand.

  Mohnish Pabrai

  Circles, Way, Should

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• The separation of church and state is necessary partly because if religion is good then the state shouldn't interfere with the religious vision or with the religious prophet. There must be a realm of truth beyond political competence, that's why there must be a separation of churches, but if religion is bad and a bad religion is one that gives an ultimate sanctity to some particular cause. Then religion mustn't interfere with the state - so one of the basic Democratic principles as we know it in America is the separation of church and state.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Religious, America, Giving

  ABC TV Interview with Mike Wallace, www.hrc.utexas.edu. April 27, 1958.

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• Since science's competence extends to observable and measurable phenomena, not to the inner being of things, and to the means, not to the ends of human life, it would be nonsense to expect that the progress of science will provide men with a new type of metaphysics, ethics, or religion.

  Jacques Maritain

  Mean, Science, Men

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• Discipline is the habit of taking consistent action until one can perform with unconscious competence. Discipline weighs ounces but regret weighs tons.

  Jhoon Goo Rhee

  Basketball, Regret, Discipline

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• Mothers seem to be in subtle competition with teachers. There is always an underlying fear that teachers will do a better job thanthey have done with their child.... But mostly mothers feel that their areas of competence are very much similar to those of the teacher. In fact they feel they know their child better than anyone else and that the teacher doesn't possess any special field of authority or expertise.

  Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot

  Mother, Teacher, Jobs

  Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot (1978). “Worlds apart: relationships between families and schools”, Basic Books (AZ)

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• A genuine approach to budget cutting - knowing exactly what you're cutting and why, and with what real-life consequences - is beyond my competence, and probably beyond the competence of any politician in America.

  George Packer

  Real, Cutting, Knowing

  "Ask the Author Live: George Packer on Obama and the Budget". The New Yorker Live Chat, www.newyorker.com. April 15, 2011.

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• It's instructive to consider the more spectacular and well-known falls from grace of leaders in the public eye... In the main, the issues behind these falls could be grouped under a lack of competence, a lack of support or loyalty from those they sought to lead, and a lack of failure of integrity. Of all these the last is the most egregious, the most fatal. We so much want our leaders to be unfailingly decent that an obvious or perceived flaw in integrity can be the toxin which kills them off.

  Peter Cosgrove

  Leadership, Loyalty, Integrity

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• For many activities, people cannot rely solely on themselves in evaluating their ability level because such judgments require inferences from probabilistic indicants of talent about which they may have limited knowledge. Self-appraisals are, therefore, partly based on the opinions of others who presumably possess evaluative competence

  Albert Bandura

  Self, People, Levels

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• I don't understand these national awards, because half of those who sit in judgement over Indian films do not... possess the competence to evaluate a film correctly.

  Satyajit Ray

  Motivational, Awards, Judgement

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• First, we need to focus government on the things that are required of the State. Second, we need to achieve competence in government so that the State delivers on the things it sets out to do.

  Narendra Modi

  Government, Focus, India

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• The most important thing in terms of your circle of competence is not how large the area of it is, but how well you've defined the perimeter.

  Warren Buffett

  Circles, Important, Term

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• One has but to observe a community of beavers at work in a stream to understand the loss in his sagacity, balance, co-operation, competence, and purpose which Man has suffered since he rose up on his hind legs. He began to chatter and he developed Reason, Thought, and Imagination, qualities which would get the smartest group of rabbits or orioles in the world into inextricable trouble overnight.

  James Thurber

  Loss, Men, Imagination

  James Thurber (1990). “Collecting Himself: James Thurber on Writing and Writers, Humor and Himself”

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• Writers of either gender ought to be able to do the opposite sex-that's one basic test of competence, after all.

  Julian Barnes

  Sex, Opposites, Tests

  Julian Barnes, Vanessa Guignery, Ryan Roberts (2009). “Conversations with Julian Barnes”, p.78, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• It seems a miracle that young children easily learn the language of any environment into which they were born. The generative approach to grammar, pioneered by Chomsky, argues that this is only explicable if certain deep, universal features of this competence are innate characteristics of the human brain. Biologically speaking, this hypothesis of an inheritable capability to learn any language means that it must somehow be encoded in the DNA of our chromosomes. Should this hypothesis one day be verified, then lingusitics would become a branch of biology.

  Niels Kaj Jerne

  Children, Mean, Science

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• There are a few investment managers, of course, who are very good - though in the short run, it's difficult to determine whether a great record is due to luck or talent. Most advisors, however, are far better at generating high fees than they are at generating high returns. In truth, their core competence is salesmanship. Rather than listen to their siren songs, investors - large and small - should instead read Jack Bogle's The Little Book of Common Sense Investing.

  Warren Buffett

  Running, Song, Book

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• We cannot expect in the immediate future that all women who seek it will achieve full equality of opportunity. But if women are tostart moving towards that goal, we must believe in ourselves or no one else will believe in us; we must match our aspirations with the competence, courage and determination to succeed.

  Rosalyn Sussman Yalow

  Motivational, Moving On, Success

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• The only irreplaceable capital an organization possesses is the knowledge and ability of its people. The productivity of that capital depends on how effectively people share their competence with those who can use it.

  Andrew Carnegie

  Communication, Organization, People

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• There is a light at the end of the tunnel but first you'll have to find the light switch and change the bulb before switching it on yourself. No problem, as targets of bullying are picked on for their competence and abilities.

  Tim Field

  Bullying, Tunnels, Light

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• We must learn that competence is better than extravagance, that worth is better than wealth, that the golden calf we have worshiped has no more brains than that one of old which the Hebrews worshiped. So beware of money and of money's worth as the supreme passion of the mind. Beware of the craving for enormous acquisition.

  C. A. Bartol

  Money, Passion, Brain

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• Only in the exceptional case, where the integrity and competence of the advisers have been thoroughly demonstrated, should the investor act upon the advice of others without understanding and approving the decision made.

  Benjamin Graham

  Integrity, Decision, Advice

  Benjamin Graham (1959). “The Intelligent Investor: A Book of Practical Counsel”

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• That myth--that image of the madonna-mother--has disabled us from knowing that, just as men are more than fathers, women are morethan mothers. It has kept us from hearing their voices when they try to tell us their aspirations . . . kept us from believing that they share with men the desire for achievement, mastery, competence--the desire to do something for themselves.

  Lillian B. Rubin

  Mother, Father, Believe

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• I pledge you, pledge myself, to a New Deal for the American people. Let us all here assembled constitute ourselves prophets of a new order of competence and of courage. This is more than a political campaign; it is a call to arms. Give me your help, not to win votes alone, but to win in this crusade to restore America to its own people.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Winning, Order, America

  Speech to Democratic Convention in Chicago, 2 July 1932, accepting nomination for presidency, in Public Papers (1938) vol. 1, p. 647

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• Despite popular opinion, there are no important parallels between Madonna and Monroe, who was a virtuoso comedienne but who was in secure, depressive, passive-aggressive, and infuriatingly obstructionist in her career habits. Madonna is manic, perfectionist, workaholic. Monroe abused alcohol and drugs, while Madonna shuns them. Monroe had a tentative, melting, dreamy solipsism; Madonna has Judy Holliday's wisecracking smart mouth and Joan Crawford's steel will and bossy, circus master managerial competence.

  Camille Paglia

  Depression, Smart, Careers

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• I lost the conviction that lights would always turn green for me, the pleasant certainty that those rather passive virtues which had won me approval as a child automatically guaranteed me not only Phi Beta Kappa keys but happiness, honor, and the love of a good man; lost a certain touching faith in the totem power of good manners, clean hair, and a proven competence on the Stanford-Binet scale. To such doubtful amulets had my self-respect been pinned, and I faced myself that day with the non-plused apprehension of someone who has come across a vampire and has no crucifix at hand.

  Joan Didion

  Children, Men, Keys

  FaceBook post by Joan Didion from Sep 10, 2011

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• Competence goes beyond words. It's the leader's ability to say it, plan it, and do it in such a way that others know that you know how - and know that they want to follow you.

  John C. Maxwell

  Leader, Want, Way

  John C. Maxwell (2007). “The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader: Becoming the Person Others Will Want to Follow”, p.25, Thomas Nelson Inc

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