Sayings about Merit
If you wish your merit to be known, acknowledge that of other people. ~ Oriental Proverb
First deserve, and then desire. ~ English Proverbs
Merit is often an obstacle to fortune; the reason is it produces two bad effects, envy and fear. ~ Traditional Proverb
Merit and glory never adorn a nightcap. ~ Chinese Proverb
He who does not wish for little things does not deserve big things. ~ Belgian Proverbs
If you love only those who love you … if you help only those who help you …what merit is that to you? ~ Bible
Speak little and well if you wish to be esteemed a person of merit. ~ French Proverbs
Quotations about Merit
Celebrity is the chastisement of merit and the punishment of talent. ~ Emily Dickinson
We may not always get what we want, but surely we will get what we deserve. ~ Doug Horton
The best evidence of merit is a cordial recognition of it whenever and wherever it may be found. ~ Christian Nestell Bovee
Honest people will respect us for our merit: the public, for our luck. ~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld
The favor of princes does not preclude the existence of merit, and yet does not prove that it exists. ~ Jean de la Bruyere
Your idea may or may not have merit. The key is to get started. ~ Author Unknown
Evidently the merit depends on the result of the work. ~ Henryk Sienkiewicz
The art of being able to make a good use of moderate abilities wins esteem and often confers more reputation than real merit. ~ Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld,
‘Tis not in mortals to command success, but we’ll do more, Sempronius, we’ll deserve it. ~ Joseph Addison
Wanting to work is so rare a merit that it should be encouraged. ~ Abraham Lincoln
Where we can compete on merit, we do very well. ~ Jim Barksdale
Man is obviously made for thinking. Therein lies all his dignity and his merit; and his whole duty is to think as he ought. ~ Blaise Pascal
On their own merits modest men are dumb. ~ George Colman
Merit has rarely risen of itself, but a pebble or a twig is often quite sufficient for it to spring from to the highest ascent. There is usually some baseness before there is any elevation. ~ Walter Savage Landor
The mark of extraordinary merit is to see those most envious of it constrained to praise. ~ Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
There are few cases in which mere popularity should be considered a proper test of merit; but the case of song-writing is, I think, one of the few. ~ Edgar Allan Poe
Merit challenges envy. ~ John Dryden
Those who do not know how to live must make a merit of dying. ~ George Bernard Shaw
There is merit without elevation, but there is no elevation without some merit. ~ Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld,
There is a proud modesty in merit. ~ John Dryden
The sufficiency of merit is to know that my merit is not sufficient. ~ Francis Quarles
Charm strikes the sight, but merit wins the soul. ~ Alexander Pope
Those who mistake their good luck for their merit are inevitably bound for disaster. ~ Christopher Herold
How vain, without the merit, is the name. ~ Homer
Eminence without merit earns deference without esteem. ~ Sebastien-Roch Nicolas De Chamfort
Contemporaries appreciate the person rather than their merit; posterity will regard the merit rather than the person. ~ Charles Caleb Colton
Merit is often an obstacle to fortune; the reason is it produces two bad effects, envy and fear. ~ Author Unknown
Merit is born with men; happy those with whom it dies! ~ Christiana of Sweden
The merit of originality is not novelty; it is sincerity. ~ Thomas Carlyle
True merit is like a river, the deeper it is, the less noise it makes. ~ Edward F. Halifax
Fame, we may understand, is no sure test of merit, but only a probability of such; it is an accident, not a property of man. ~ Thomas Carlyle
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
Merit was ever modest known. ~ John Gay
Mere bashfulness without merit is awkwardness. ~ Joseph Addison
There are people who in spite of their merit disgust us and others who please us in spite of their faults. ~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld
True merit, like a river, the deeper it is, the less noise it makes. ~ Charles Montagu Halifax
Merit, however inconsiderable, should be sought for and rewarded. Methods are the master of masters. ~ Charles Maurice De Talleyrand
Men of real merit, whose noble and glorious deeds we are ready to acknowledge are not yet to be endured when they vaunt their own actions.~ Author Unknown
It is more honorable to be raised to a throne than to be born to one. Fortune bestows the one, merit obtains the other. ~ Francesco Petrarch
It is of no consequence of what parents a man is born, as long as he be a man of merit. ~ Horace
The same principle leads us to neglect a man of merit that induces us to admire a fool. ~ Jean de la Bruyere
An ingenuous, mind feels in unmerited praise, the bitterest reproof. ~Walter Savage Landor
Whoever gains the palm by merit, let him hold it. ~ Lord Horatio Nelson
Modesty is the chastity of merit, the virginity of noble souls. ~ Madame de Girardin
Arrogance on the part of the meritorious is even more offensive to us than the arrogance of those without merit: for merit itself is offensive. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
I love the lineage of heroes, but I love merit more. ~ Frederick II
The world rewards the appearance of merit oftener than merit itself. ~ Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
Here is a field open for talent; and here, merit will a have certain favor, and industry is graced with its due reward. ~ Claudius
Fondly we think we honor merit then, when we but praise ourselves in other men. ~ Alexander Pope
Perpetual modernism is the measure of merit in every work of art. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ambition is pitiless. Any merit that it cannot use it finds despicable. ~ Joseph Joubert
Real merit of any kind cannot long be concealed; it will be discovered, and nothing can depreciate it, but a man’s exhibiting it himself. It may not always be rewarded as it ought; but it will always be known. ~ Philip Dormer Stanhope
Reputation is only a candle, of wavering and uncertain flame, and easily blown out, but it is the light by which the world looks for and finds merit. ~ James Russell Lowell
There is a season for man’s merit as well as for fruit. ~ Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
The silence that accepts merit as the most natural thing in the world is the highest applause. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
We should try to succeed by merit, not by favor. He who does well will always have patrons enough. ~ Plautus
The world more frequently recompenses the appearance of merit, than merit itself. ~ Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving. ~ William Shakespear
Men sometimes feel injured by praise because it assigns a limit to their merit; few people are modest enough not to take offense that one appreciates them. ~ Marquis De Vauvenargues
There is merit in the attempt, and a whole lot accomplished along the way. ~ Author Unknown
Nature makes merit, and fortune puts it to work. ~ Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
It never occurs to fools that merit and good fortune are closely united. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Contemporaries appreciate the man rather than his merit; posterity will regard the merit rather than the man. ~ Charles Caleb Colton
Good birth is a fine thing, but the merit is our ancestors. ~ Plutarch
Nature gives you the face you have at twenty; it is up to you to merit the face you have at fifty. ~ Coco Chanel
Merit rarely goes unrewarded. ~ George Washington
No answer to prayer is an indication of our merit; every answer to prayer is an indication of God’s mercy. ~ John Blanchard
What is merit? The opinion one man entertains of another. ~ Lord Palmerston
Suggested readings : Affirmative Action and the Meanings of Merit.