quotations about merit
View the whole scene, with critic judgment scan,
And then deny him merit if you can.
Where he falls short, 'tis Nature's fault alone
Where he succeeds, the merit's all his own.
CHARLES CHURCHILL
The Rosciad
Whoever gains the palm by merit, let him hold it.
LORD NELSON
attributed, Day's Collacon
True merit often finds its gold not distinguished from base metal.
H. HOOKER
attributed, Day's Collacon
It is happy to have so much merit that our birth is the least thing respected in us.
A. B. DE SENECE
attributed, Day's Collacon
Is not the merit of any creation determined primarily by the close and exact correspondence between the idea and its incarnation?
MME. SWETCHINE
The Writings of Madame Swetchine
The spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Hamlet
If we would honor merit, we must not judge by appearances; a vizored villain may seem fair.
G. BROWN
attributed, Day's Collacon
Real merit requires as much labor to be placed in a true light, as humbug to be elevated to an unworthy eminence; only the success of the false is temporary, that of the true, immortal.
FRANCIS ALEXANDER DURIVAGE
attributed, Day's Collacon
There is merit without elevation, but there is no elevation without some merit.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
Constant success shows us but one side of the world; for, as it surrounds us with friends, who will tell us only our merits, so it silences those enemies from whom alone we can learn our defects.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon
A man without ceremony hath need of great merit in its place.
ROBERT DODSLEY
attributed, Day's Collacon
The man of merit hath too often to bend his back before men of vulgar souls.
BERACHJAHA-NAKDAN
attributed, Day's Collacon