quotations about merit
It is almost always supposed that the distribution of innate abilities and the chances to acquire proper education will be less than equitable, so that meritocracies are not devoid of aristocracies and hierarchies.
STANFORD M. LYMAN
The Seven Deadly Sins: Society and Evil
Whoever gains the palm by merit, let him hold it.
LORD NELSON
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
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
Merit is an abstract tally or record of the virtuous deeds performed by the individual in the course of his or her lifetime. It contrasts with demerit or sin, the tally of one's bad deeds. One's relative amounts of merit and sin determine one's fate in one's next life: The more merit and the less demerit one has when one dies, the better the state one will be reborn to.
SHERRY B. ORTNER
Sherpas Through Their Rituals
If we would honor merit, we must not judge by appearances; a vizored villain may seem fair.
G. BROWN
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
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
The man of merit hath too often to bend his back before men of vulgar souls.
BERACHJAHA-NAKDAN
attributed, Day's Collacon
Success always attends merit.
TITUS LIVY
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
A man without ceremony hath need of great merit in its place.
ROBERT DODSLEY
attributed, Day's Collacon