Merit Quotes - Page 36

• Our form of government does not enter into rivalry with the institutions of others. Our government does not copy our neighbors', but is an example to them. It is true that we are called a democracy, for the administration is in the hands of the many and not of the few. But while there exists equal justice to all and alike in their private disputes, the claim of excellence is also recognized; and when a citizen is in any way distinguished, he is preferred to the public service, not as a matter of privilege, but as the reward of merit

  Pericles

  Hands, Government, Justice

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• There is nothing - no program, no hobby, no vice, no crime - that does not 'create jobs'. Tsunamis, computer viruses and shooting convenience store clerks all 'create jobs'. So that claim misses the plot; it applies to all so is an argument in favor of none. Instead of an argument on the merits, it is an admission that one has no such arguments.

  Chris Horner

  Jobs, Missing, Clerks

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• The chief merit of language is clearness.

  Galen

  Language, Chiefs, Clearness

  Galen, Arthur John Brock (1991). “On the natural faculties”, Loeb Classical Library

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• Focus on something that has high value to someone else, be really rigorous in making that assessment, because natural human tendency is wishful thinking, so the challenge to entrepreneurs is telling what's the difference between really believing in your ideals and sticking to them as opposed to pursuing some unrealistic dream that doesn't actually have merit, be very rigorous in your self analysis, certainly being extremely tenacious, and just work like hell. Put in 80-100 hours every week. All these things improves the odds of success

  Elon Musk

  Dream, Believe, Thinking

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• Politics is the business of getting power and privilege without possessing merit

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Privilege, Possessing

  P. J. O'Rourke (2007). “All the Trouble in the World: The Lighter Side of Overpopulation, Famine, Ecological Disaster, Ethnic Hatred, Plague, and Poverty”, p.12, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• If its length be not considered a merit, it hath no other.

  Edmund Waller

  Art, Entertainment, Length

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• A recurring dream probably merits close attention. Something wants you to pay attention.

  Amy Hardie

  Dream, Attention, Want

  "Live Chat with Filmmaker and Dream Experts". Live Chat, www.pbs.org.

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• I was a voracious reader and I could never understand why comics were of any less merit or importance than any other way of writing. I think the thing that keeps me with comics is there's still so much to be done. There's still this huge unplowed field, this huge unexplored wilderness, and as long as I can keep doing new things and coming up with new things, I will.

  Neil Gaiman

  Writing, Thinking, Long

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• There is indeed something deeply wrong with a person who lacks principles, who has no moral core. There are, likewise, certainly values that brook no compromise, and I would count among them integrity, fairness, and the avoidance of cruelty. But I have never accepted the argument that principle is compromised by judging each situation on its own merits, with due appreciation of the idiosyncrasy of human motivation and fallibility.

  Sonia

  Appreciation, Motivation, Integrity

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• There's some way in which we would prefer not to see very clearly the immense gifts and intelligence of some of the people who live in our most abject conditions. Maybe there are some things at work in deciding who gets to be society's winners and who gets to be society's losers that don't have to do with merit.

  Katherine Boo

  People, Way, Loser

  Interview with Steve Inskeep, kasu.org. November 15, 2012.

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• Discerning the merits of competing claims is where the empirical basis of science should play a role. I cannot stress often enough that what science is all about is not proving things to be true but proving them to be false. What fails the test of empirical reality, as determined by observation and experiment, gets thrown out like yesterday's newspaper.

  Lawrence M. Krauss

  Stress, Reality, Play

  "War Is Peace: Can Science Fight Media Disinformation?". www.scientificamerican.com. December 1, 2009.

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• And for our unparalleled ingratitude to that Adorable Being Who has seated us in a land irradiated by the cheering beams of the Gospel of Jesus Christ ... let us fall prostrate before offended Deity, confess sincerely and penitently our manifold sins and our unworthiness of the least of His Divine favors, fervently implore His pardon through the merits of our mediator.

  Elbridge Gerry

  Jesus, Cheer, Fall

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• The realization that my daily relationship with God is based on the infinite merit of Christ instead of on my own performance is a very freeing and joyous experience. But it is not meant to be a one-time experience; the truth needs to be reaffirmed daily.

  Jerry Bridges

  Needs, Realization, Infinite

  Jerry Bridges (2017). “Transforming Grace”, p.8, NavPress

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• Berkeley retains the merit of having shown that the existence of matter is capable of being denied without absurdity.

  Bertrand Russell

  Matter, Existence, Absurdity

  Bertrand Russell (2016). “The Problems of Philosophy”, p.14, Bertrand Russell

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• 'There may be some, perhaps - I don't know that there are - who abuse his kindness,' said Mr. Wickfield. 'Never be one of those, Trotwood, in anything. He is the least suspicious of mankind; and whether that's a merit, or whether it's a blemish, it deserves consideration in all dealings with the Doctor, great or small.

  Charles Dickens

  Kindness, Character, Doctors

  Charles Dickens (2001). “David Copperfield”, p.115, Broadview Press

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• The worst class of sum worked in the every-day world is cyphered by the diseased arithmeticians who are always in the rule of Subtraction as to the merits and successes of others, and never in Addition as to their own.

  Charles Dickens

  Class, Words Of Wisdom, World

  Charles Dickens (1867). “Charles Dickens's works. Charles Dickens ed. [18 vols. of a 21 vol. set. Wanting A child's history of England; Christmas stories; The mystery of Edwin Drood].”, p.307

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• A particular ikon an aid to devotion may be itself a word of art, but that is logically accidental; its artistic merits will not make it a better ... ikon. They may make it a worse one.

  C. S. Lewis

  Art, Poetry, Literature

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• In debating the respective merits of dogs and cats, not having to walk a cat when it's 20 below zero deserves consideration.

  Doug Larson

  Dog, Zero, Cat

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• The saved are singled out not by their own merits, but by the grace of the Mediator.

  Martin Luther

  Grace, Saved, Mediators

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• As the blood of Christ is the fountain of all merit, so the Spirit of Christ is the fountain of all spiritual life; and until he quicken us and infuse the principle of the divine life into our souls, we can put forth no hand, or vital act of faith, to lay hold upon Jesus Christ.

  John Flavel

  Spiritual, Jesus, Blood

  John Flavel (1701). “The whole works of the Reverend Mr. John Flavel: ... to which are added alphabetical tables of the texts of scripture explained, and indexes of the principal matters contained in both volumes”, p.279

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• Our merit gains us the esteem of the virtuous-our star that of the public.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Stars, Gains, Popularity

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• Which is the greater merit, to enlighten the human race, which remains forever, or to save one's fatherland, which is perishable?

  Denis Diderot

  Race, Forever, Atheism

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• The world is not a meritocracy, as much as we may like to pretend that it is. And we have a long way to go before we really reward people based on their own merit.

  Malcolm Gladwell

  Long, People, World

  "Book World Live: Malcolm Gladwell, author of 'Outliers'". Online discuss, www.washingtonpost.com. November 18, 2008.

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• The machine is impersonal, it takes the pride away from a piece of work, the individual merits and defects that go along with allwork that is not done by a machine--which is to say, its little bit of humanity.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Work, Pride, Humanity

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• Vain men delight in telling what Honours have been done them, what great Company they have kept, and the like; by which they plainly confess, that these Honours were more than their Due, and such as their Friends would not believe if they had not been told: Whereas a Man truly proud, thinks the greatest Honours below his Merit, and consequently scorns to boast. I therefore deliver it as a Maxim that whoever desires the Character of a proud Man, ought to conceal his Vanity.

  Jonathan Swift

  Believe, Character, Pride

  Jonathan Swift (1856). “The Works of Jonathan Swift ...: Containing Interesting and Valuable Papers, Not Hitherto Published ... With Memoir of the Author”, p.305

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