Merit Quotes - Page 13

• The arrogance that accompanies merit offends us even more than the arrogance of people who are lacking in merit: since merit itself offends us.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  People, Arrogance, Lacking

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• Even the most abject have a sense of superiority based on powerful though undefined merits.

  Mason Cooley

  Powerful, Undefined, Superiority

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• We know who is benevolent, by quite other means than the amount of subscriptions to soup-societies. It is only low merits that canbe enumerated.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Character, Mean, Soup

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2000). “Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson: (A Modern Library E-Book)”, p.414, Modern Library

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• If you desire praise or esteem, endeavor to merit it.

  Norm MacDonald

  Desire, Praise, Endeavor

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• Recognition for a job well done is high on the list of motivating influences for all people; more important in many instances than compensation itself. When someone is promoted, a promotion that everyone could see coming because of an excellent record, the entire department is stimulated. For it is clear, then, that promotions are based on merit. A promotion that seems to come out of the blue, which is always the case when no one knows what the next fellow is doing, causes nothing but resentment and a further weakening of the will to work.

  John Moulder Wilson

  Jobs, Blue, People

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• Whoever gains the palm by merit, let him hold it.

  Horatio Nelson

  Gains, Palms

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• There is no country in which so absolute a homage is paid to wealth. In America there is a touch of shame when a man exhibits theevidences of large property, as if after all it needed apology. But the Englishman has pure pride in his wealth, and esteems it a final certificate. A coarse logic rules throughout all English souls: if you have merit, can you not show it by your good clothes and coach and horses?

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Country, Horse, Apology

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2012). “The Selected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.268, Graphic Arts Books

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• The characteristic merit of the English constitutions is, that its dignified parts are very complicated and somewhat imposing, very old and rather venerable, while its efficient part, at least when in great and critical action, is decidedly simple and modern.

  Walter Bagehot

  Simple, Action, Constitution

  Walter Bagehot (1930). “The English Constitution: And Other Political Essays”, p.38, Lulu.com

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• Confidence always pleases those who receive it. It is a tribute we pay to their merit, a deposit we commit to their trust, a pledge that gives them a claim upon us, a kind of dependence to which we voluntarily submit.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Confidence, Giving, Pay

  "Reflections on Various Subjects". Book by François de La Rochefoucauld, www.gutenberg.org. 1678.

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• Change a virtue in its circumstances find it becomes a vice; change a vice in its circumstances, and it becomes a virtue. Regard the same quality from two sides; on one it is a fault, on the other a merit. The essential of a man is found concealed far below these moral badges.

  Hippolyte Taine

  Men, Two Sides, Quality

  Hippolyte Taine (1871). “History of English Literature”, p.401

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• No work is of such merit as to instruct from a mere cursory perusal.

  Seneca the Younger

  Mere

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• The reverence for the deeds of our ancestors is a treacherous sentiment. Their merit was not to reverence the old, but to honor the present moment; and we falsely make them excuses of the very habit which they hated and defied.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Hate, Honor, Deeds

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ronald A. Bosco, Joel Myerson (2015). “Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.527, Harvard University Press

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• To be loved, we should merit but little esteem; all superiority attracts awe and aversion.

  Claude Adrien Helvetius

  Aversion, Littles, Should

  Claude Adrien Helvétius (1777). “A Treatise on Man, His Intellectual Faculties and His Education: A Posthumous Work of M. Helvetius. Translated from the French, with Additional Notes, by W. Hooper, ...”, p.366

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• The food of thy soul is light and space; feed it then on light and space. But the food of thy body is champagne and oysters; feed it then on champagne and oysters; and so shall it merit a joyful resurrection, if there is any to be.

  Herman Melville

  Food, Light, Oysters

  Herman Melville (1971). “Pierre, Or The Ambiguities: Volume Seven, Scholarly Edition”, p.299, Northwestern University Press

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• Surrendering, letting go of possessiveness, and complete nonattachment-all are synonyms for accumulating merit.

  Pema Chodron

  Letting Go, Possessiveness, Synonym

  Pema Chodron (2001). “Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living”, p.99, Shambhala Publications

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• Can't I another's face commend, Or to her virtues be a friend, But instantly your forehead louers, As if her merit lessen'd yours?

  George Edward Moore

  Jealous, Faces, Virtue

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• When the philosophers despised riches, it was because they had a mind to vindicate their own merit, and take revenge upon the injustice of fortune by vilifying those enjoyments which she had not given them.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Revenge, Philosophical, Mind

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• There are two merits that glorify a person: being courageous for a man and being virtuous for a woman. Besides these two, there is another merit that glorifies both man and woman: so much loving the homeland to an extent with being ready to sacrifice his/her life, if needed. Turks are such courageous and virtuous people. That is why you can kill a Turk but you can never defeat them.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Sacrifice, Men, Two

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• The merit of those who fill a space in the world's history, who are borne forward, as it were, by the weight of thousands whom they lead, shed a perfume less sweet than do the sacrifices of private virtue.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Sweet, Sacrifice, Space

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1921). “Representative men. Miscellanies”

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• For all its considerable merits and inspirational principles, the American system is based upon a continuous uninterrupted process of election campaigns, stretching out year after year. Lost in the perpetual scramble is any long-term vision.

  Queen Noor of Jordan

  Years, Long, Vision

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• No man is nobler born than another, unless he is born with better abilities and a more amiable disposition. They who make such a parade with their family pictures and pedigrees, are, properly speaking, rather to be called noted or notorious than noble persons. I thought it right to say this much, in order to repel the insolence of men who depend entirely upon chance and accidental circumstances for distinction, and not at all on public services and personal merit.

  Seneca the Younger

  Men, Order, Noble

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• Our age is one in which usefulness is thought to be the chief merit of nature; in which the attainment of power, the utilization of its resources is taken to be the chief purpose of man in God's creation. Man has indeed become primarily a tool-making animal, and the world is now a gigantic tool box for the satisfaction of his needs.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Taken, Men, Animal

  Abraham Joshua Heschel (1976). “God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism”, p.34, Macmillan

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• The esteem of good men is the reward of our worth, but the reputation of the world in general is the gift of our fate.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Fate, Men, Good Man

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• Praise is a more ingenious, concealed, and subtle kind of flattery, that satisfies both the giver and the receiver, though by verydifferent ways. The one accepts it as a reward due to his merit; the other gives it that he may be looked upon as a just and discerning person.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Giving, May, Rewards

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• That man, we may be sure, is a person of true worth, whom those who envy him most are yet forced to praise.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Men, Envy, May

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