Incompetence Quotes

• The problem with incompetence is its inability to recognize itself.

  Orrin Woodward

  Inability, Problem

  Twitter post from May 11, 2016

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• Useful men, who do useful things, don't mind being treated as useless.
  But the useless always judge themselves as being important and hide all their incompetence behind authority.

  Paulo Coelho

  Men, Judging, Mind

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• There are few things more dangerous than a mixture of power, arrogance and incompetence.

  Bob Herbert

  Power, Arrogance, Mixtures

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• Incompetence is the true crisis.

  Albert Einstein

  Crisis

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• Incompetence is often highly regarded in governmental circles.

  William Wallace

  Circles

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• Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Education, Hate, Humor

  Attributed without source in "Message Passing Server Internals" by Bill Blunden, (p. 15), 2003.

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• When success and incompetence meet, disaster is not far away.

  Robert Kiyosaki

  Far Away, Disaster

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• Never attribute to malevolence what is merely due to incompetence

  Arthur C. Clarke

  Attributes, Malevolence, Dues

  Arthur C. Clarke (2012). “3001: The Final Odyssey”, p.155, RosettaBooks

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• One of the painfully sobering realizations that come from reading history is the utter incompetence that is possible among leaders of whole nations and empires - and the blind faith that such leaders can nevertheless inspire among the people who are enthralled by their words or their posturing.

  Thomas Sowell

  Reading, People, Leader

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• Always assume incompetence before looking for conspiracy.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Assuming, Conspiracy

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• I see no magic in tax dollars which are sent to Washington and then returned. I abhor the waste and incompetence of large-scale federal bureaucracies in this administration as well as in others. I do not favor state compulsion when voluntary individual effort can do the job and do it well.

  John F. Kennedy

  Jobs, Individual Effort, Magic

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• Our government has become incompetent, unresponsive, corrupt. And that incompetence, ineptitude, lack of accountability is now dangerous.

  Carly Fiorina

  Government, Accountability, Ineptitude

  "The Fix 5th Republican debate transcript, annotated: Who said what and what it meant". www.washingtonpost.com. December 15, 2015.

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• Government failure is always used as an excuse for government expansion. Government thrives on crisis and incompetence.

  Jim Babka

  Government, Liberty, Expansion

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• Incompetence plus incompetence equals incompetence.

  Laurence J. Peter

  Plus

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

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• Authoritarianism and secrecy breed incompetence; the two feed on each other. It's a vicious cycle. Governments with authoritarian tendencies point to what is in fact their own incompetence as the rationale for giving them yet more power.

  Josh Marshall

  Government, Two, Giving

  "I Was Finally Able". Talking Points Memo, talkingpointsmemo.com. January 17, 2006.

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  It has become almost a cliché 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

  Ignorance, Knowledge, Science

  "The Richard Dimbleby Lecture: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder". Lecture, BBC1 Television, November 12, 1996.

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• A certain combination of incompetence and indifference can cause almost as much suffering as the most acute malevolence.

  Bruce Catton

  Stupidity, Suffering, Causes

  Bruce Catton (1984). “Bruce Catton's Civil War: three volumes in one”, Outlet

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• The whole gospel of Karl Marx can be summed up in a single sentence: Hate the man who is better off than you are. Never under any circumstances admit that his success may be due to his own efforts, to the productive contribution he has made to the whole community. Always attribute his success to the exploitation, the cheating, the more or less open robbery of others. Never under any circumstances admit that your own failure may be owing to your own weakness, or that the failure of anyone else may be due to his own defects - his laziness, incompetence, improvidence, or stupidity.

  Henry Hazlitt

  Success, Cheating, Freedom

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• Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.

  Isaac Asimov

  Wise, Peace, Military

  Isaac Asimov (1951). “The foundation trilogy: three classics of science fiction”

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• Arrogance, ignorance, and incompetence. Not a pretty cocktail of personality traits in the best of situations. No sirree. Not a pretty cocktail in an office-mate and not a pretty cocktail in a head of state. In fact, in a leader, it's a lethal cocktail.

  Graydon Carter

  Ignorance, Office, Personality

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• We all have a vast number of areas in which we have no talent or skill and little chance of becoming even mediocre. In those areas a knowledge workers should not take on work, jobs and assignments. It takes far more energy to improve from incompetence to mediocrity than it takes to improve from first-rate performance to excellence.

  Peter Drucker

  Jobs, Skills, Numbers

  Peter Drucker, Alan Kantrow, Rick Wartzman, Julia Kirby (2016). “Get the Right Things Done: The Drucker Collection (6 Items)”, p.12, Harvard Business Review Press

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• Everyone rises to their level of incompetence.

  Laurence J. Peter

  Funny Work, Boss, Levels

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• As coercive monopolies that spend other people's money taken by force, governments are uniquely unqualified to solve problems. They are riddled by ignorance, perverse incentives, incompetence and are self-serving.

  John Stossel

  Taken, Ignorance, Government

  "Don't Look to Government to Cool Down the Planet". abcnews.go.com. November 14, 2007.

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• 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

  Birthday, Song, Jobs

  FaceBook post by Billy Joel from May 31, 2012

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• One of the chief features of incompetence was an inability to see it in oneself.

  Kim Stanley Robinson

  Inability, Chiefs, Oneself

  Kim Stanley Robinson (2009). “Galileo's Dream”, p.380, Spectra

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