quotations about merit
Thy father's merit sets thee up to view,
And shows thee in the fairest point of light,
To make thy virtues, or thy faults, conspicuous.
JOSEPH ADDISON
Cato
It sounds like stories from the land of spirits,
If any man obtain that which he merits,
Or any merit that which he obtains.
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE
The Good, Great Man
Merit is born with men; happy those with whom it dies.
QUEEN CHRISTINA
attributed, Day's Collacon
A person may not merit favor, as that is only the claim of man, but can never demerit charity, for that is the command of God.
STERNE
attributed, Day's Collacon
As whole societies have come to represent themselves as giant credentialized meritocracies, rather than as systems of predatory extraction, we bustle about, trying to curry favor by pretending we actually believe it to be true.
DAVID GRAEBER
The Utopia of Rules
Where merit appears, do justice to it without scruples.
GARDINER SPRING
attributed, Day's Collacon
Did you ever scratch the end of a piece of timber, slightly elevated, with a pin? Though scarcely heard at one end, it was distinctly heard at the other. Just so it is with any merit, excellence, or good work; it will be sooner heard of, and applauded, and rewarded on the other side of the globe, than by your immediate acquaintances.
RHODA BROUGHTON
attributed, Day's Collacon
All merit ceases the moment we perform an act for the sake of its consequences.
WILHELM VON HUMBOLDT
Letters to a Female Friend
The art of being able to make a good use of moderate abilities wins esteem and often confers more reputation than real merit.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
People should examine and weigh the real weight and merit of the person, and not be imposed upon by false colors and pretenses.
SAMUEL CROXALL
Fables of Aesop and Others
It is by inborn merit that a man acquires preeminence; whereas he who acts by precepts is a man of naught, swaying from this side to that, never setting down a firm, well-directed foot; he attempts much, but to little purpose.
PINDARUS
attributed, Day's Collacon
Meritocracies are clearly hierarchical, yet the notion that differences in power and status are deserved makes them more palatable, even to some who think of themselves as hostile to inequality.
DEBORAH H. GRUENFELD & LARISSA Z. TIEDENS
"Organizational Preferences and Their Consequences", Handbook of Social Psychology
It is possible to indulge too great contempt for mere success, which is frequently attended with all the practical advantages of merit itself, and with several advantages that merit alone can never command.
WILLIAM BENTON CLULOW
Aphorisms and Reflections: A Miscellany of Thought and Opinion
The next thing to having merit ourselves, is to take care that the meritorious profit by us; for he that rewards the deserving, makes himself one of the number.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon; or Many Things in Few Words Addressed to Those Who Think
Merit hid from the public gaze has little advantage over sloth laid in the grave.
HORACE
attributed, Day's Collacon
Mere bashfulness without merit is awkward; and merit without modesty, insolent; but modest merit has a double claim to acceptance, and generally meets with as many patrons as beholders.
J. HUGHES
attributed, Day's Collacon
On their own merits modest men are dumb.
GEORGE COLMAN THE YOUNGER
Epilogue, The Heir at Law
I know not why we should delay our tokens of respect to those who merit them, until the heart that our sympathy could have gladdened has ceased to beat. As men cannot read the epitaphs inscribed upon the marble that covers them, so the tombs that we erect to virtue often only prove our repentance that we neglected it when with us.
EDWARD BULWER LYTTON
attributed, Day's Collacon
Man's concept of merit is subjective rather than objective. Despite formal education and even religious and philosophical studies, man persists in his condition of intellectual and moral confusion. He creates in and around himself a genuine intellectual and moral quagmire. Truth, much less its helper, merit, becomes foreign to his consciousness. People are content to be image seekers, not genuine thinkers, so true merit is wanting.
ABRAM ALLEN
Truity: The Essence of Truth
The principle of merit is generally viewed as a neutral and fair standard whereby people may be measured against each other and it is unfair, in terms of this standard which is beneficial to society, to prefer the less qualified.
JOHAN RABE
Equality, Affirmative Action and Justice