Competent Quotes - Page 8

• All these people keep waxing sentimental about how fabulously well I am doing as a mother, how competent I am, but I feel inside like when you're first learning to put nail polish on your right hand with your left. You can do it, but it doesn't look all that great around the cuticles.

  Anne Lamott

  Mother, Hands, People

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• Science asks no questions about the ontological pedigree or a priori character of a theory, but is content to judge it by its performance; and it is thus that a knowledge of nature, having all the certainty which the senses are competent to inspire, has been attained--a knowledge which maintains a strict neutrality toward all philosophical systems and concerns itself not with the genesis or a priori grounds of ideas.

  Chauncey Wright

  Philosophical, Character, Ideas

  Chauncey Wright (2003). “Philosphical Discussions”, p.47, A&C Black

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• To act honestly- even at the risk of saying the unpleasant truth, or of saying no and causing distress to others- if done with intelligence and tact, is the kindest thing to do because it respects our own integrity and acknowledges in others the capacity to be competent and mature.

  Piero Ferrucci

  Integrity, Risk, Done

  Piero Ferrucci (2007). “The Power of Kindness: The Unexpected Benefits of Leading a Compassionate Life”, p.35, Penguin

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• Luck is an accident that happens to the competent.

  Albert M. Greenfield

  Luck, Happens, Accidents

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• Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate. It will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up from less competent people.

  Andrew Mellon

  Real, Live Life, Hard Work

  "The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover - The Great Depression, 1929-1941". Book by Herbert Hoover, www.huffingtonpost.com. 1951.

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• Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people.

  Andrew Mellon

  People, Wrecks, Picks

  "The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover - The Great Depression, 1929-1941". Book by Herbert Hoover, www.huffingtonpost.com. 1951.

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• Physiological psychology, on the other hand, is competent to investigate the relations that hold between the processes of the physical and those of the mental life.

  Wilhelm Wundt

  Life, Hands, Psychology

  Wilhelm Max Wundt (1969). “Principles of Physiological Psychology”

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• 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 Winslow Taylor

  Time, Work, Doe

  Frederick Winslow Taylor (1947). “Scientific Management, Comprising Shop Management: The Principles of Scientific Management [and] Testimony Before the Special House Committee”, New York, Harper

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• And the most difficult of tasks to keep Heights which the soul is competent to gain.

  William Wordsworth

  Soul, Tasks, Height

  'The Excursion' (1814) bk. 4, l. 136

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• Let no youth have any anxiety about the upshot of his education, whatever the line of it may be. If he keep faithfully busy each hour of the working-day, he may safely leave the result to itself. He can with perfect certainty count on waking up some fine morning to find himself one of the competent ones of his generation.

  William James

  Inspirational, Education, Morning

  William James (2012). “The Principles of Psychology”, p.127, Courier Corporation

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• If you are any competent musician, if you have creative ideas, ideas of songs, of arrangements, in a band like the Stones, where these 2 people do all the things, there is no freedom.

  Bill Wyman

  Song, Ideas, People

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• Properly speaking, we learn from those books only that we cannot judge. The author of a book that I am competent to criticise would have to learn from me.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Book, Judging, Criticise

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, John Stuart Blackie (1883). “The Wisdom of Goethe”, Edinburgh, W. Blackwood

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• No man can be a competent legislator who does not add to an upright intention and a sound judgment a certain degree of knowledge of the subject on which he is to legislate.

  James Madison

  Men, Sound, Degrees

  James Madison, John Jay (1847). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.216

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• Don't blame me for the fact that competent programming, as I view it as an intellectual possibility, will be too difficult for the average programmer, you must not fall into the trap of rejecting a surgical technique because it is beyond the capabilities of the barber in his shop around the corner.

  Edsger Dijkstra

  Fall, Views, Average

  Edsger W. Dijkstra (2012). “Selected Writings on Computing: A personal Perspective”, p.163, Springer Science & Business Media

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• When you lose interest in a program, your last duty to it is to hand it off to a competent successor.

  Eric S. Raymond

  Hands, Lasts, Program

  Eric S. Raymond (2001). “The Cathedral & the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary”, p.26, "O'Reilly Media, Inc."

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• Which are you?...competen t, inspiring, passionate, obsessed, provocative, impatient, hungry, driven, adoring, inspired, an artist, a genius, someone who cares...?
  With all these remarkable, powerful, important options available to each of us, why do so many of us default to competent?

  Seth Godin

  Powerful, Artist, Important

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• The worst of failure of this kind is that it spoils the market for more competent performers.

  James Agate

  Failure, Kind, Worst

  James Agate (1949). “A Shorter Ego: Ego 7, Ego 8, Ego 9”

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• The sinner is at the heart of Christianity. No one is as competent as the sinner in matters of Christianity. No one, except a saint.

  Charles Peguy

  Heart, Saint, Matter

  "Basic Verities, Prose and Poetry". Book by Charles Péguy. "Un Nouveau théologien" (1911), 1943.

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• In his 4 years in the White House, President Carter worked to make the Federal Government more competent and compassionate and more responsive to the American people.

  Nathan Deal

  Government, Years, White

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

  Edward Bond

  Insecurity, Desert, Literature

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• We look in... Germany for a superstar. We began with 10,000 people, which applied. From these 10,000, 100 was selected. The jury is unbelievably competent.

  Michelle Hunziker

  People, Insecurity, Germany

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• There's Eddie's conviction and his lyrics and his ideals, and he can just rock straight out. His vocals are incredible. And we all are really competent musicians.

  Mike McCready

  Rocks, Insecurity, Musician

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• I fancy myself as being a fairly competent person.

  Lisa Ling

  Fancy, Persons

  "Lisa Ling Helps Women Share Compassion Through Secrets". "Tell Me More" with Michel Martin, www.npr.org. December 24, 2010.

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• Finding a programmer to work with if you don't already know one will be a challenge. Merely judging if a programmer is exceptional vs. competent will be very hard if you are not one yourself. When you do find someone, work together informally for a while to test your compatibility.

  Jessica Livingston

  Judging, Challenges, Working Together

  "The Advice For Any Woman Who Wants To Found A Startup" by Jessica Livingston, www.businessinsider.com. January 31, 2011.

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• The effective exploitation of his powers of abstraction must be regarded as one of the most vital activities of a competent programmer.

  Edsger Dijkstra

  Exploitation, Programmers, Activity

  "The Humble Programmer". Edsger Dijkstra's ACM Turing Award lecture, "Communications of the ACM", Volume 15, No. 10, www.cs.utexas.edu. October 1972.

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