Merit Quotes - Page 9

Now things have changed for the better. Our reforms end seniority and tenure so we can hire and fire based on merit and pay based on performance. That means we can put the best and the brightest in our classrooms - and we can keep them there.

Scott Walker

Mean, Fire, Reform

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What do I see in the God of that infamous sect if not an inconsistent and barbarous being, today the creator of a world of destruction he repents of tomorrow; what do I see there but a frail being forever unable to bring man to heel and force him to bend a knee. This creature, although emanated from him, dominates him, knows how to offend him and thereby merit torments eternally! What a weak fellow, this God!

Marquis de Sade

God, Religious, Men

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Archimedes, Newton, and Gauss, these three, are in a class by
themselves among the great mathematicians, and it is not for
ordinary mortals to attempt to range them in order of merit.

Eric Temple Bell

Order, Class, Ordinary

Eric Temple Bell (1945). “Men of Mathematics”

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Belief in a certain series of myths was neither obligatory as a part of the true religion, nor was it supposed that, by believing, a man acquired religious merit and conciliated the favour of the gods.

William Robertson Smith

Religious, Believe, Men

William Robertson Smith (1907). “Religion of the Semites (Ppr)”, p.17, Transaction Publishers

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what is sought by means of free choice is to make room for merits.

Martin Luther

Mean, Choices, Rooms

Martin Luther (2012). “Martin Luther's Basic Theological Writings”, p.323, Fortress Press

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The rich feel full of merit.

Mason Cooley

Rich, Feels

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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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It may be a mere patriotic bias, though I do not think so, but it seems to me that the English aristocracy is not only the type, but is the crown and flower of all actual aristocracies; it has all the oligarchical virtues as well as all the defects. It is casual, it is kind, it is courageous in obvious matters; but it has one great merit that overlaps even these. The great and very obvious merit of the English aristocracy is that nobody could possibly take it seriously.

Gilbert K. Chesterton

Flower, Patriotic, Thinking

"Orthodoxy". Book by G. K. Chesterton, Chapter VI. "The Paradoxes of Christianity", 1908.

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A suspicious person is the rival of him that deceives, both seem to practice a knowledge of cunning device, and equable sense of disengenuous merit.

Norm MacDonald

Practice, Rivals, Deceiving

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

Horatio Nelson

Gains, Palms

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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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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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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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If I cannot narrate a life of adventurous and daring exploits, fortunately I have no heavy crimes to confess: and, if I do not rise in the estimation of the reader for acts of gallantry and devotion in my country's cause, at least I may claim the merit of zealous and persevering continuance in my vocation. We are all of us variously gifted from Above, and he who is content to walk, instead of to run, on his allotted path through life, although he may not so rapidly attain the goal, has the advantage of not being out of breath upon his arrival.

Frederick Marryat

Running, Country, Book

Frederick Marryat (1870). “Peter Simple”, p.1

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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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But the mark of American merit in painting, in sculpture, in poetry, in fiction, in eloquence, seems to be a certain grace withoutgrandeur, and itself not new but derivative; a vase of fair outline, but empty,--which whoso sees, may fill with what wit and character is in him, but which does not, like the charged cloud, overflow with terrible beauty, and emit lightnings on all beholders.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Character, America, Clouds

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.96, Library of America

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When I was 7, I wanted to be a jockey. My father told me women weren't allowed. I couldn't believe it. I was perfectly willing to fail on my own merits, but to be flunked at birth?

Mavis Leno

Father, Believe, Jockeys

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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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Great causes are never tried on their merits; but the cause is reduced to particulars to suit the size of the partizans, and the contention is ever hottest on minor matters.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Matter, Suits, Causes

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.550, Library of America

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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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A man who does not endeavour to seem more than he is will generally be thought nothing of. We habitually make such large deductions for pretence and imposture that no real merit will stand against them. It is necessary to set off our good qualities with a certain air of plausibility and self-importance, as some attention to fashion is necessary.

William Hazlitt

Fashion, Real, Men

William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1485, Delphi Classics

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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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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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The appearances of goodness and merit often meet with a greater reward from the world than goodness and merit themselves.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Rewards, World, Appearance

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We blame equally him who is too proud to put a proper value on his own merit and him who prizes too highly his spurious worth.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Proud, Blame, Prize

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