Trying to learn to be a good man is like learning to play tennis against a wall. You are only a good man - a competent, capable, interesting and lovable man - when you're doing it for, or with, other people.
A. A. Gill
Lawyers are the first refuge of the incompetent.
Aaron Allston
All I can do is do my part and keep trying to open up eyes with what I did on the football field, what I did in my career. Just go out there and try to compete and shock a couple more people.
Aaron Donald
When I wrote 'The West Wing,' the juice behind it was that in popular culture, our leaders in government are generally portrayed as Machiavellian, or as idiots. I thought, well, how about writing about a group of hyper-competent people?
Aaron Sorkin
When I was in school, sport was given utmost importance. I think it's fantastic for character building, for team playing, and I think it's a great profile for a nation. One in every six people on Earth is an Indian, and I look forward to the day when we can compete with the heavyweights of the sporting world and do well in the medal tally.
Abhishek Bachchan
A publicly run health care program could compete with private insurance companies, which have a record of overcharging and underperforming.
Adam Cohen
My mom was always trying to figure out ways to make Hanukkah exciting and compete with our neighbors the Kremps, who always had these amazing blow-out Christmas parties.
Adam F. Goldberg
Bragging about yourself violates norms of modesty and politeness - and if you were really competent, your work would speak for itself.
Adam Grant
I have always wanted to compete in the Olympic Games.
Adam Ondra
I think speed climbing is kind of an artificial discipline. Climbers compete on the same holds and train on the same holds, which doesn't have much in common with the climbing philosophy in my opinion.
I remember my late father, who was the biggest football fan I have ever known, used to stress when I was younger that, win or lose, you always have to compete with honor.
Adam Richman
I remember my mom let me stay up late and watch Tara Lipinski and Michelle Kwan compete in the 1998 Olympic Games. I made paper medals and wore them the whole night. I didn't start skating until 2000, but I was so inspired by their skating that it was why I wanted to start.
Adam Rippon
In high school I just loved to compete and play sports. I didn't have a sport that I was going to say, 'Hey, I'm going to play this at the next level.' Whatever my best opportunity was was what I was going to do.
Adam Thielen
I love to compete and I hate failing.
I'm going to try to go out and do my best, and I'm going to try and compete every play.
It's the Olympics. And it was a long way for me. To compete at the Olympic Games, I dreamed of any medal, but frankly speaking, I wanted a gold one.
Adelina Sotnikova
It's a mistake to believe technology rests outside India. We compete very successfully.
Adi Godrej
Notwithstanding my present incompetency, I am beginning to translate the New Testament, being extremely anxious to get some parts of Scripture, at least, into an intelligible shape, if for no other purpose than to read, as occasion offers, to the Burmans I meet with.
Adoniram Judson
I esteem it the crowning mercy of my life that not only the chief ends I contemplated on becoming a missionary are attained, but I am allowed to see competent, faithful, and affectionate successors actively engaged in the work.
Historical records show that Abenakis and other Natives encountered European explorers and traders in Canada looking for sources of ivory to compete with the Russian trade in Siberian fossil mammoth ivory - these traders routinely asked about ivory 'horns' and teeth.
Adrienne Mayor
I think that Tupac was the trendsetter, the high mark. What we hope his music will continue to do is to at least encourage people away from mediocrity, because he was not a mediocre artist. When he was alive, people competed. There was a lot of competition, and a lot of the artists were better for it.
To handle the economy and services in a country like Iraq requires delegation of authority and the choice of competent people.
The Olympic Games are highly commercialised. They purport to follow the traditions of an ancient athletics competition, but today it is the commercial aspect that is most apparent. I have seen how, through sport, cities and corporations compete against each other for financial gain.
I wasn't even born when dad swam in the Olympics. I've seen videos of some of his swims, although I don't think I've ever seen him in the Olympics. He's been a massive support right through my career, and it's good to have someone so close to talk to who knows all about what it's like to compete in an Olympic Games.
The fact remains that I am a very artless and incompetent writer.
One reason outfielders don't have stronger arms might be they don't practice as much as we did. Most teams today don't take outfield practice. Another reason is baseball has to compete with other sports now - basketball, football, soccer - for the better athletes that might have more skills and stronger arms.
I don't compete with other discus throwers. I compete with my own history.
My father died when I was young, and my mother, Ruth, went to work in an office selling theater and movie parties. She put me through private school, Horace Mann, in Riverdale. She sent me to camp so that I would learn to compete. She was a lioness, and I was her cub.
There is no reason that America can't compete in a global economy, and I love being one small proof point in that.
Some people believe the U.S. can't compete in the design and manufacture of sophisticated products. I think we absolutely can if we pull together. We have shown that we can do that in commercial airplanes, and we can absolutely prove that we can do that in automobiles.
As any competent student of literary composition knows, the more natural and casual a voice sounds in print, the more likely it is to have been edited time and again.
The improvisational nature of jazz musicianship is such that a truly competent performer must be prepared to function as an on-the-spot composer who is expected to contribute to the orchestration in progress, not simply to execute the score as it is written and rehearsed.
I competed in different places all over the world. I represented my country in the Pan-American championships.
Then I received support from the Government to compete for my country, and to represent Cuba in competition.
The most important part of this is to prepare the athlete for life in general and then be able to compete.
My main point in this regard was to compete for my country and my people and to receive the support of the entire Cuban society, to carry my flag in whatever competition I was in, the Olympic Games, Pan-American Games.
America is competitive. We compete with each other every day.
With 950 reporters and 79 bureaus, Bloomberg competes to break news with Dow Jones, Reuters and Bridge News along with newspaper Web sites, dozens of smaller Internet sites, and even gossipy chat rooms.
This game is very humbling and you have to take it one pitch at a time, one day at a time and compete.
The Boston Red Sox, they love to compete.
It's always fun to compete against the best.
Being able to compete and try and win games is the coolest feeling.
You've got to want to compete with the best of the best and when the pressure's on.
As a footballer you're committed to play for the badge, train alongside fantastic players daily and compete against some of the game's best every weekend. What more can you ask for.
I rarely felt or noticed any real divide between girls and boys when I was growing up. Maybe it was because I was so involved in sports and competed with the boys. Maybe it was my mom and dad, who constantly instilled confidence in me and never made me feel as though there were boy activities and girl activities.
I feel gifted for having the opportunity to compete in Daytona.
Americans are very patriotic and they want someone to support. In order to entice more fans, and to allow F1 to compete with Nascar and IndyCar, there needs to be an American driver.
I've never been here to simply compete.
I would say 'competence' actually might be slightly more important than passion. I understand that it is important to feel strongly about things, but give me a competent dentist over a passionate dentist any day, if only because something about the phrase 'passionate dentist' is deeply unnerving.
I have reached a level where I can compete with great players. I do not feel inferior to anybody.
