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
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
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
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
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
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
Merit is something due a person for a performance. If it is not received, an injustice is committed.
R. C. SPROUL
The R. C. Sproul Collection
The best evidence of merit is a cordial recognition of it whenever and wherever found.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
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
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
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 world oftener rewards the appearance of merit than merit itself.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
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
Merit hid from the public gaze has little advantage over sloth laid in the grave.
HORACE
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
By merit raised
To that bad eminence.
JOHN MILTON
Paradise Lost
Merit is born with men; happy those with whom it dies.
QUEEN CHRISTINA
attributed, Day's Collacon
Where merit appears, do justice to it without scruples.
GARDINER SPRING
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 force of his own merit makes his way.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Henry VIII