Competent Quotes

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

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Sad, Jealousy, Knowledge

  Robert A. Heinlein (1987). “Time Enough for Love”, p.236, Penguin

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• Because of the nature of Moore's law, anything that an extremely clever graphics programmer can do at one point can be replicated by a merely competent programmer some number of years later.

  John Carmack

  Clever, Years, Law

  GameSpy.com Interview with Tom Ham, January 2004.

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• 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

  Men, Activity, Consistently

  Letty Cottin Pogrebin (1983). “Family politics: love and power on an intimate frontier”, McGraw-Hill Companies

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• All highly competent people continually search for ways to keep learning, growing, and improving. They do that by asking WHY. After all, the person who knows HOW will always have a job, but the person who knows WHY will always be the boss.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Jobs, Asking Why, People

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• I am, as I've said, merely competent. But in an age of incompetence, that makes me extraordinary.

  Billy Joel

  Birthday, Insecurity, Age

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• There is no reason to believe that the people who staff the managerial and professional positions in our service institutions are any less qualified, any less competent or honest, or any less hard-working than the men who manage businesses. Conversely, there is no reason to believe that business managers, put in control of service institutions, would do better than the 'bureaucrats'. Indeed, we know that they immediately become bureaucrats themselves.

  Peter Drucker

  Believe, Hard Work, Men

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• Competence, like truth, beauty, and contact lenses, is in the eye of the beholder.

  Laurence J. Peter

  Beauty, Truth, Work

  Laurence J. Peter, Raymond Hull (1969). “The Peter Principle”

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• You cannot trust Jesus in areas in which you don't think him competent.

  Dallas Willard

  Jesus, Thinking, Areas

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• In real life I'm not the character I play in my films. I'm reasonably competent, I work very hard, I'm disciplined, I lead a very middle class life. I work in the mornings, I have lunch, I practise my clarinet, I go to the movies, I eat out in restaurants or watch ball games on television or at the ball games.

  Woody Allen

  Morning, Real, Character

  Interview with Geoff Andrew, www.theguardian.com. September 27, 2001.

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• I was by birth a gentleman, living neither in any considerable height, nor yet in obscurity. I have been called to several employments in the nation - to serve in parliaments, - and ( because I would not be over tedious ) I did endeavour to discharge the duty of an honest man in those services, to God, and his people's interest, and of the commonwealth; having, when time was, a competent acceptation in the hearts of men, and some evidence thereof.

  Oliver Cromwell

  Heart, Men, People

  Oliver Cromwell (1901). “Speeches, 1644-1658”

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• The State is competent to assign duties and draw the line between good and evil only in its immediate sphere. Beyond the limits of things necessary for its well-being, it can only give indirect help to fight the battle of life by promoting the influences which prevail against temptation--religion, education, and the distribution of wealth.

  Lord Acton

  Fighting, Evil, Giving

  John Emerich Edward Dalberg, Lord Acton (2016). “The History of Freedom (and other Essays)”, p.30, Jazzybee Verlag

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• Is it unprecedented for two goalkeepers employed in a match comprising seven goals to be the fixture's most competent protagonists?

  Pete Gill

  Soccer, Football, Two

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• So many people can now write competent stories that the short story is in danger of dying of competence.

  Flannery O'Connor

  Writing, People, Dying

  Flannery O'Connor (2014). “Mystery and Manners”, p.50, Faber & Faber

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• Anyone who has ever been able to sustain good work has had at least one person--and often many--who have believed in him or her. We just don't get to be competent human beings without a lot of different investments from others.

  Fred Rogers

  Different, Able, Investment

  Fred Rogers (1995). “You Are Special: Words of Wisdom for All Ages from a Beloved Neighbor”, p.28, Penguin

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• By a man's finger-nails, by his coat-sleeve, by his boots, by his trouser-knees, by the callosities of his forefinger and thumb, by his expression, by his shirt-cuff — By each of these things a man's calling is plainly revealed. That all united should fail to enlighten the competent inquirer in any case is almost inconceivable. You know that a conjurer gets no credit when once he has explained his trick; and if I show you too much of my method of working, you will come to the conclusion that I am a very ordinary individual after all.

  Arthur Conan Doyle

  Book, Men, Expression

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• Have you noticed how difficult it is just to get along in the world? If you're no good at all in your job, people treat you badly and eventually you will be unemployed. And if you're a little better than competent, everyone expects miracles from you, every single time. Like most of life, it's a no-win situation. And if you dare to mention it, no matter how creatively you phrase your complaints, you are shunned as a whiner.

  Jeff Lindsay

  Jobs, Winning, People

  Jeff Lindsay (2010). “Dexter Is Delicious: Dexter Morgan (5)”, p.27, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard

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• Besides a mathematical inclination, an exceptionally good mastery of one's native tongue is the most vital asset of a competent programmer.

  Edsger Dijkstra

  Learning, Mastery, Tongue

  Edsger W. Dijkstra (2012). “Selected Writings on Computing: A personal Perspective”, p.130, Springer Science & Business Media

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• If we are to have a culture as resilient and competent in the face of necessity as it needs to be, then it must somehow involve within itself a ceremonious generosity toward the wilderness of natural force and instinct. The farm must yield a place to the forest, not as a wood lot, or even as a necessary agricultural principle but as a sacred grove - a place where the Creation is let alone, to serve as instruction, example, refuge; a place for people to go, free of work and presumption, to let themselves alone. (pg. 125, The Body and the Earth)

  Wendell Berry

  Yield, People, Generosity

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• It is also true that the less competent a person is in a given domain, the more he will tend to overestimate his abilities. This often produces an ugly marriage of confidence and ignorance that is very difficult to correct for.

  Sam Harris

  Ignorance, Ugly, Produce

  Sam Harris (2011). “The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values”, p.123, Simon and Schuster

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• The generosity of the Earth allows us to feed all mankind; we know enough about ecology to keep the Earth a healthy place; there is enough room on the Earth, and there are enough materials, so that everybody can have adequate shelter; we are quite competent enough to produce sufficient supplies of necessities so that no one need live in misery.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Generosity, Healthy, Needs

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• In living literature no person is a competent judge but of works written in his own language. I have expressed my opinion concerning a number of English writers; it is very possible that I may be mistaken, that my admiration and my censure may be equally misplaced, and that my conclusions may appear impertinent and ridiculous on the other side of the Channel.

  François-René de Chateaubriand

  Numbers, Judging, May

  "Sketches of English Literature: With Considerations on the Spirit of the Times, Men, and Revolutions". Book by François-René de Chateaubriand, translated by Henry Colburn, Volume II, p.36, 1836.

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• What are the hallmarks of a competent writer of fiction? The first, it seems to me, is that he should be immensely interested in human beings, and have an eye sharp enough to see into them, and a hand clever enough to draw them as they are. The second is that he should be able to set them in imaginary situations which display the contents of their psyches effectively, and so carry his reader swiftly and pleasantly from point to point of what is called a good story.

  H. L. Mencken

  Clever, Eye, Psych

  The American Mercury Magazine, p. 136, May 1933.

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• Playing acoustic and line drawings are the two things I'm most competent at.

  Robyn Hitchcock

  Two, Drawing, Insecurity

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• The future belongs to the competent

  Brian Tracy

  Brian Tracy (2005). “Create Your Own Future: How to Master the 12 Critical Factors of Unlimited Success”, p.47, BookBaby

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• If any ask me what a free government is, I answer, that, for any practical purpose, it is what the people think so,and that they, and not I, are the natural, lawful, and competent judges of this matter.

  Edmund Burke

  Thinking, Government, Judging

  Edmund Burke (1852). “The Works and Correspondence of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke”, p.321

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