Quotes
Quotes about Merit
Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving.
Merit is often an obstacle to fortune; the reason is it produces two bad effects, envy and fear.
They merit more praise who know how to suffer misery than those who temper themselves in contentment.
Speak little and well if you wish to be esteemed a person of merit.
True merit, like a river, the deeper it is, the less noise it makes.
There's a proud modesty in merit; averse from asking, and resolved to pay ten times the gifts it asks.
Contemporaries appreciate the man rather than his merit; posterity will regard the merit rather than the man.
Whoever is admitted or sought for, in company, upon any other account than that of his merit and manners, is never respected there, but only made use of. We will have such-a-one, for he sings prettily; we will invite such-a-one to a ball, for he dances well; we will have such-a-one at supper, for he is always joking and laughing; we will ask another because he plays deep at all games, or because he can drink a great deal. These are all vilifying distinctions, mortifying preferences, and exclude all ideas of esteem and regard. Whoever is had (as it is called) in company for the sake of any one thing singly, is singly that thing, and will never be considered in any other light; consequently never respected, let his merits be what they will.
Rashness brings success to few, misfortune to many. [Lat., Paucis temeritas est bono, multis malo.]
The modesty's a candle to thy merit.
Modesty is to merit, what shade is to figures in a picture; it gives it strength and makes it stand out.
Whoe'er amidst the sons Of reason, valor, liberty and virtue, Displays distinguished merit, is a noble Of Nature's own creating.
The merit of originality is not novelty; it is sincerity. The believing man is the original man; whatsoever he believes, he believes it for himself, not for another.
The merit of originality is not novelty, it is sincerity. The believing man is the original man; he believes for himself, not for another.
Jealousy would be far less torturous if we understood that love is a passion entirely unrelated to our merits.
Careless their merits or their faults to scan, His pity gave ere charity began.
I wonder how many of the people who profess to believe in the leveling ideas of collectivism and egalitarianism really just believe that they themselves are good for nothing. I mean, how many leftists are animated by a quite reasonable self-loathing? In their hearts they know that they are not going to become scholars or inventors or industrialists or even ordinary good kind people. So they need a way to achieve that smugness for which the left is so justifiably famous. They need a way to achieve self-esteem without merit. Well, there is politics. In an egalitarian world everything will be controlled by politics, and politics requires no merit.
This case is wholly without merit both factually and legally. (US District Judge in commenting on the Fox network lawsuit against Al Franken's book).
Praise from a friend, or censure from a foe, Are lost on hearers that our merits know.
For the preacher's merit or demerit, It were to be wished that the flaws were fewer In the earthen vessel, holding treasure, But the main thing is, does it hold good measure Heaven soon sets right all other matters!
Children sweeten labours; but they make misfortunes more bitter. They increase the care of life; but they mitigate the remembrance of death. The perpetuity of generation is common to beasts; but memory, merit, and noble works, are proper to men. And surely a man shall see the noblest works and foundations have proceeded from childless men; which have sought to express the images of their minds, where those of their bodies have failed.
Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit and lost without deserving.
Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving.
In ambition, as in love, the successful can afford to be indulgent toward their rivals. The prize our own, it is graceful to recognize the merit that vainly aspired to it.
In the firm expectation that when London shall be a habitation of bitterns, when St. Paul and Westminster Abbey shall stand shapeless and nameless ruins in the midst of an unpeopled marsh, when the piers of Waterloo Bridge shall become the nuclei of islets of reeds and osiers, and cast the jagged shadows of their broken arches on the solitary stream, some Transatlantic commentator will be weighing in the scales of some new and now unimagined system of criticism the respective merits of the Bells and the Fudges and their historians.
