Merit Quotes - Page 19

• The days when it was possible to win a serious game only by merit of sporting character or depth of chess understanding have vanished forever. Chess knowledge has become dominant, bypassing all the other factors that contribute to success.

  Anatoly Karpov

  Success, Character, Winning

  12 Copy quote

• For it has been said, all that a man hath will he give for his life; and while all contribute of their substance the soldier puts his life at stake, and often yields it up in his country's cause. The highest merit, then is due to the soldier.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Country, Men, Yield

  Abraham Lincoln (2012). “The Life and Writings of Abraham Lincoln”, p.867, Modern Library

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• The obvious merits utterance. Character is f**king pertinent.

  Al Swearengen

  Kings, Character, Utterance

  33 Copy quote

• To generalize is to be an idiot. To particularize is the alone distinction of merit. General knowledge are those knowledge that idiots possess.

  William Blake

  Idiot, Distinction, Generalization

  "Annotations to The Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds" (ca. 1798 - 1809)

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• Whatever we may say against collections, which present authors in a disjointed form, they nevertheless bring about many excellent results. We are not always so composed, so full of wisdom, that we are able to take in at once the whole scope of a work according to its merits. Do we not mark in a book passages which seem to have a direct reference to ourselves? Young people especially, who have failed in acquiring a complete cultivation of mind, are roused in a praiseworthy way by brilliant passages.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Book, People, Mind

  7 Copy quote

• There is no more merit in being able to attach a correct description to a picture than in being able to find out what is wrong with a stalled motorcar. In each case it is special knowledge.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Knowledge, Special, Able

  4 Copy quote

• Those who do not read criticism will rarely merit to be criticised.

  Isaac D'Israeli

  Criticism

  "Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations" by Jehiel Keeler Hoyt, p. 149-52, Literary Character of Men of Genius, chapter VI, 1922.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• A continual feast of commendation is only to be obtained by merit or by wealth: many are therefore obliged to content themselves with single morsels, and recompense the infrequency of their enjoyment by excess and riot, whenever fortune sets the banquet before them.

  Samuel Johnson

  Excess, Wealth, Praise

  Samuel Johnson, Elizabeth Carter, Samuel Richardson, Catherine Talbot (1825). “The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752”, p.329

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• Horse-play, romping, frequent and loud fits of laughter, jokes, and indiscriminate familiarity, will sink both merit and knowledge into a degree of contempt. They compose at most a merry fellow; and a merry fellow was never yet a respectable man.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Horse, Laughter, Fun

  Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.140, Oxford University Press

  52 Copy quote

  Show source

• Christmas is forced upon a reluctant and disgusted nation by the shopkeepers and the press; on its own merits it would wither and shrivel in the fiery breath of universal hatred.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Christmas, Hatred, Sausage

  21 Copy quote

• There is no cruelty so inexorable and unrelenting as that which proceeds from a bigoted and presumptuous supposition of doing service to God. The victim of the fanatical persecutor will find that the stronger the motives he can urge for mercy are, the weaker will be his chance for obtaining it, for the merit of his destruction will be supposed to rise in value in proportion as it is effected at the expense of every feeling both of justice and of humanity.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Justice, Feelings, Humanity

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.128

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• If the soul would know the merit which one acquires in temptations suffered in patience and conquered, it would be tempted to say: "Lord, send me temptations."

  Pio of Pietrelcina

  Temptation, Soul, Suffering

  11 Copy quote

• Woman's weakness, not man's merit, oftenest gains the suitor's victory.

  Nicolas Chamfort

  Men, Victory, Weakness

  8 Copy quote

• A humble and contrite heart knows that it can merit nothing before God, and that all that is necessary is to be reconciled to one's helplessness and let our holy and almighty God care for us, just as an infant surrenders himself to his mother's care.

  Ole Hallesby

  Mother, Heart, Humble

  Ole Hallesby (1975). “Prayer”, Augsburg Fortress Publishing

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• It has become harder and harder to find books on a monthly basis that I feel absolutely compelled to share, .. I will continue featuring books on the 'Oprah Winfrey Show' when I feel they merit my heartfelt recommendation.

  Oprah Winfrey

  Book, Heartfelt, Share

  "Chat queen Oprah shelves her TV book club" by David Teather, www.theguardian.com. April 8, 2002.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• For the preacher's merit or demerit, It were to be wished that the flaws were fewer In the earthen vessel, holding treasure, But the main thing is, does it hold good measure Heaven soon sets right all other matters!

  Robert Browning

  Heaven, Doe, Treasure

  'Christmas Eve' (1850) l. 1311

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Envy will merit as its shade pursue, But like a shadow, proves the substance true.

  Alexander Pope

  Envy, Shadow, Substance

  Alexander Pope (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Alexander Pope (Illustrated)”, p.154, Delphi Classics

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• No one should judge that he has greater perfection because he performs great penances and gives himself in excess to the staying of the body than he who does less, inasmuch as neither virtue nor merit consists therein; for otherwise he would be an evil case, who for some legitimate reason was unable to do actual penance. Merit consists in the virtue of love alone, flavored with the light of true discretion without which the soul is worth nothing.

  St. Catherine of Siena

  Light, Evil, Giving

  8 Copy quote

• Life is short and the time of death is uncertain; so apply yourself to meditation. Avoid doing evil, and acquire merit, to the best of your ability, even at the cost of life itself. In short: Act so that you have no cause to be ashamed of yourselves and hold fast to this rule.

  Milarepa

  Life Is Short, Evil, Meditation

  170 Copy quote

• The curse of death for disobedience has been silenced because, for believers, there is no longer any Law we have to obey to merit life. The Law has been silenced, but it can only be silenced when it is has been perfectly fulfilled—when it has been completed. And that’s just what Jesus did.

  Elyse Fitzpatrick

  Jesus, Law, Curse

  8 Copy quote

• Election is an act of God before creation in which He chooses some people to be saved, not on account of any foreseen merit in them, but only because of His sovereign good pleasure.

  Wayne Grudem

  People, Sovereign, Election

  Wayne A. Grudem (2009). “Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine”, p.624, Harper Collins

  27 Copy quote

  Show source

• I have been writing my heart out all my life, but only getting a living out of it now.... ... it's not a question of the merit of art, but a question of spontaneity and sincerity and joy I say. I would like everybody in the world to tell his full life confession and tell it his own way and then we'd have something to read in our old age.

  Jack Kerouac

  Art, Writing, Joy

  5 Copy quote

• Praise in the beginning is agreeable enough; and we receive it as a favor; but when it comes in great quantities, we regard it only as a debt, which nothing but our merit could extort.

  James Goldsmith

  Debt, Favors, Dignity

  7 Copy quote

• Envy will merit, as its shade, pursue

  Alexander Pope

  Envy, Shade, Dignity

  Alexander Pope (2012). “Essay on Man and Other Poems”, p.16, Courier Corporation

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• For even they who compose treatises of medicine or natural philosophy in verse are denominated Poets: yet Homer and Empedocles have nothing in common except their metre; the former, therefore, justly merits the name of the Poet; while the other should rather be called a Physiologist than a Poet.

  Aristotle

  Philosophy, Names, Medicine

  Aristotle (1815). “Aristotle's Treatise on Poetry”, p.66

  7 Copy quote

  Show source