Merit Quotes - Page 18

• There is no merit to discipline under ideal circumstances. I must have it in the face of death or it is worthless.

  Isaac Asimov

  Discipline, Faces, Circumstances

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• I am sorry to have to introduce the subject of Christmas. It is an indecent subject; a cruel, gluttonous subject; a drunken, disorderly subject; a wasteful, disastrous subject; a wicked, cadging, lying, filthy, blasphemous and demoralizing subject. Christmas is forced on 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; and anyone who looked back to it would be turned into a pillar of greasy sausages.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Sorry, Lying, Hatred

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• If there is truth or merit in the criticism, try to learn from it. Otherwise, let it roll right off you.

  Hillary Clinton

  Inspiring, Strong Women, Empowerment

  "Living History".

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• Especially among Christians in positions of wealth and power, the idea of reading the Gospels and keeping Jesus' commandments as stated therein has been replaced by a curious process of logic. According to this process, people first declare themselves to be followers of Christ, and then they assume that whatever they say or do merits the adjective "Christian".

  Wendell Berry

  Christian, Jesus, Reading

  Wendell Berry (2005). “Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Christ's Teachings about Love, Compassion, and Forgiveness”, p.3, Counterpoint Press

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• When we are mired in the relative world, never lifting our gaze to the mystery, our life is stunted, incomplete; we are filled with yearning for that paradise that is lost when, as young children, we replace it with words and ideas and abstractions - such as merit, such as past, present, and future - our direct, spontaneous experience of the thing itself, in the beauty and precision of this present moment.

  Peter Matthiessen

  Children, Past, Ideas

  Peter Matthiessen (1998). “Nine-Headed Dragon River: Zen Journals 1969-1982”, p.16, Shambhala Publications

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• As a means of dispensing formulated ignorance our boasted public school system is not without merit; it spreads out education sufficiently thin to give everyone enough to make him a more competent fool than he would have been without it.

  Ambrose Bierce

  School, Ignorance, Mean

  Ambrose Bierce (2015). “A Cynic Looks at Life”, p.7, Sheba Blake Publishing

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• I believe in me, in my view of the world. I believe in my responsibility for my own destiny, guilt for my own sins, merit for my own good deeds, determination of my own life. I don't believe in miracles, I believe in hard work.

  Philippa Gregory

  Determination, Believe, Responsibility

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• There is small merit in mocking goodness, tweaking charity; it is much more comic to deprive people of their petty little existence for no reason at all, for a lark.

  Jacques Rigaut

  People, Larks, Charity

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• To yield readily--easily--to the persuasion of a friend is no merit.... To yield without conviction is no compliment to the understanding of either.

  Jane Austen

  Yield, Understanding, Compliment

  Jane Austen (2005). “Jane Austen: 8 Books in 1”, p.110, Shoes & Ships & Sealing Wax

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• Presents are made for the pleasure of who gives them, not the merits of who receives them.

  Carlos Ruiz Zafon

  Giving Not Receiving, Giving Back, Pleasure

  Carlos Ruiz Zafon (2005). “The Shadow of the Wind”, p.80, Penguin

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• The world today is ruled by harassed politicians absorbed in getting into office or turning out the other man so that not much room is left for debating the great issues on their merits

  Winston Churchill

  Men, Issues, Office

  Winston Churchill (2001). “The Wicked Wit of Winston Churchill”, Michael O'Mara Books

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• The notion that faith in Christ is to be rewarded by an eternity of bliss, while a dependence upon reason, observation, and experience merits everlasting pain, is too absurd for refutation, and can be believed only by that unhappy mixture of insanity and ignorance, called faith.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Religious, Pain, Ignorance

  Robert Green Ingersoll (1990). “On The Gods and Other Essays”

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• When you accept everything, everything is beyond dimensions. The earth is not great nor a grain of sand small. In the realm of Great Activity picking up a grain of sand is the same as taking up the whole universe. To save one sentient being is to save all sentient beings. Your efforts of this moment to save one person is the same as the eternal merit of Buddha.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Effort, Earth, Dimensions

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• Men were created before women. ... But that doesn't prove their superiority – rather, it proves ours, for they were born out of the lifeless earth in order that we could be born out of living flesh. And what's so important about this priority in creation, anyway? When we are building, we lay foundations on the ground first, things of no intrinsic merit or beauty, before subsequently raising up sumptuous buildings and ornate palaces. Lowly seeds are nourished in the earth, and then later the ravishing blooms appear; lovely roses blossom forth and scented narcissi.

  Moderata Fonte

  Flower, Men, Order

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• [M]en, though they know full well how much women are worth and how great the benefits we bring them, nonetheless seek to destroy us out of envy for our merits. It's just like the crow, when it produces white nestlings: it is so stricken by envy, knowing how black it is itself, that it kills its own offspring out of pique.

  Moderata Fonte

  White, Knowing, Envy

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• If Wells recognized any merit in [Henry] James, it was his undeniable talent for using very long sentences in order to say nothing at all. p. 516

  Félix J. Palma

  Order, Long, Talent

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• Do you know, the only people I can have a conversation with are the Jews? At least when they quote scripture at you they are not merely repeating something some priest has babbled in their ear. They have the great merit of disagreeing with nearly everything I say. In fact, they disagree with almost everything they say themselves. And most importantly, they don't think that shouting strengthens their argument.

  Iain Pears

  Thinking, People, Ears

  Iain Pears (2003). “Dream of Scipio”, p.72, Penguin

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• The merit of all things lies in their difficulty.

  Alexandre Dumas

  Lying, Musketeers, Difficulty

  Alexandre Dumas (2006). “The Three Musketeers: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.269, Penguin

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• But then you begin to understand that the reward of merit is not life’s business.

  Julian Barnes

  Rewards

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• Regweld is really a fine wizard," he continued, patting the shoulder again. "And his ideas for crossbreeding a horse and a frog are not without merit; never mind the explosion! Alchemy shops can be replaced!

  R. A. Salvatore

  Horse, Ideas, Mind

  R.A. Salvatore (2009). “Streams of Silver: The Legend of Drizzt”, p.117, Wizards of the Coast

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• Once again she would arrive at a foreign place. Once again be the newcomer, an outsider, the one who did not belong. She knew from experience that she would quickly have to ingratiate herself with her new masters to avoid being rejected or, in more dire cases, punished. Then there would be the phase where she would have to sharpen her senses in order to see and hear as acutely as possible so that she could assimilate quickly all the new customs and the words most frequently used by the group she was to become a part of--so that finally, she would be judged on her own merits.

  Laura Esquivel

  Order, Groups, Would Be

  Guillermo Arriaga, F. G. Haghenbeck, Reyna Grande, Laura Esquivel, Javier Valdes (2013). “Atria Español Presents: The Best of Mexican Literature”, p.17, Simon and Schuster

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• Why was I chosen?' 'Such questions cannot be answered,' said Gandalf. 'You may be sure that it was not for any merit that others do not possess. But you have been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have.

  J. R. R. Tolkien

  Heart, Use, May

  J.R.R. Tolkien (2012). “The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings”, p.52, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Royce Westmoreland stared at him with biting scorn. "I despise hypocrisy, particularly when it is coated with holiness." "May I ask for a specific example?" "Fat priests," Royce replied, "with fat purses, who lecture staving peasants on the dangers of gluttony and the merits of poverty.

  Judith McNaught

  Hypocrisy, Example, Holiness

  Judith McNaught (2016). “A Kingdom of Dreams”, p.266, Simon and Schuster

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• Though why should we expect age to mellow us? If it isn't life's business to reward merit, why should it be life's business to give us warm comfortable feelings towards its end? What possible evolutionary purpose could nostalgia serve?

  Julian Barnes

  Giving, Feelings, Age

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• Later on in life, you expect a bit of rest, don't you? You think you deserve it. I did, anyway. But then you begin to understand that the reward of merit is not life's business.

  Julian Barnes

  Thinking, Rewards, Bits

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