Merit Quotes - Page 38

• The contempt of riches in the philosophers was a concealed desire of revenging on fortune the injustice done to their merit, by despising the good she denied them.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Desire, Done, Riches

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• Self-love increases or diminishes for us the good qualities of our friends, in proportion to the satisfaction we feel with them; and we judge of their merit by the manner in which they act towards us.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Friends, Self, Judging

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• The lover's pleasure, like that of the hunter, is in the chase, and the brightest beauty loses half its merit, as the flower its perfume, when the willing hand can reach it too easily. There must be doubt; there must be difficulty and danger.

  Walter Scott

  Love, Flower, Hands

  Sir Walter Scott (1871). “Waverley Novels”, p.352

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• Assurance and intrepidity, under the white banner of seeming modesty, clear the way for merit, that would otherwise be discouraged by difficulties...

  Lord Chesterfield

  White, Way, Modesty

  "Manners and speech or maxims extracted from Lord Chesterfield's letters to his son". Book by Lord Chesterfield, 1884.

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• If you wish particularly to gain the good graces and affection of certain people, men or women, try to discover their most striking merit, if they have one, and their dominant weakness, for every one has his own, then do justice to the one, and a little more than justice to the other.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Men, People, Justice

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• A man's fortune is frequently decided by his first address. If pleasing, others at once conclude he has merit; but if ungraceful, they decide against him.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Men, Pleasing Others, Addresses

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• Great merit or great failings will make you respected or despised; but trifles, little attentions, mere nothings, either done or neglected, will make you either liked or disliked, in the general run of the world. Examine yourself, why you like such and such people and dislike such and such others; and you will find that those different sentiments proceed from very slight causes.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Running, People, Different

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• Many new years you may see, but happy ones you cannot see without deserving them. These virtue, honor, and knowledge alone can merit, alone can produce.

  Lord Chesterfield

  New Year, Years, Honor

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• Ties of blood are not always ties of friendship; but friendship founded on merit, on esteem, and on mutual trust, becomes more vital and more tender when strengthened by the ties of blood.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Friendship, Blood, Ties

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• Give nobly to indigent merit, and do not refuse your charity even to those who have not merit but their misery.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Giving, Charity, Misery

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• Endeavor, as much as you can, to keep company with people above you.... Do not mistake, when I say company above you, and think that I mean with regard to their birth; that is the least consideration; but I mean with regard to their merit, and the light in which the world considers them.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Mistake, Mean, Thinking

  Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.56, Oxford University Press

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• Remedy your deficiencies, and your merits will take care of themselves. Every man has in him good and evil. His good is his valiant army, his evil is his corrupt commissariat; reform the commissariat and the army will do its duty.

  Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

  Character, Army, Men

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• In the library of the world men have hitherto been ranged according to the form, and the binding; the time is coming when they will take rank and order according to their contents and intrinsic merits.

  Nicolas Chamfort

  Men, Order, Library

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• There is a sort of natural instinct of human dignity in the heart of man which steels his very nerves not to bend beneath the heavy blows of a great adversity. The palm-tree grows best beneath a ponderous weight, even so the character of man. There is no merit in it, it is a law of psychology. The petty pangs of small daily cares have often bent the character of men, but great misfortunes seldom. There is less danger in this than in great good luck.

  Lajos Kossuth

  Character, Good Luck, Adversity

  Lajos Kossuth (1852). “Proceedings, Speeches,&c. at the Dinner given to Louis Kossuth at the National Hotel, Washington, Jan. 7, 1852”, p.3

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• Forces of Destruction: grades in school, merit system, incentive pay, business plans, quotas.

  W. Edwards Deming

  School, Quota, Incentives

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• The higher state to which [America] seeks the allegiance of all mankind is not of human, but of divine origin. She cherishes no purpose save to merit the favor of Almighty God.

  Calvin Coolidge

  America, Purpose, Favors

  Presidential Inaugural Address, delivered 4 March 1925

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• That delay is our surest protection which enables us to deliberate on the merits of our intentions.

  Publilius Syrus

  Delay, Protection, Intention

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• Many a man has a kind of a kaleidoscope, where the bits of broken glass are his own merits and fortunes; and they fall into harmonious arrangements, and delight him, often most mischievously and to his ultimate detriment; but they are a present pleasure.

  Arthur Helps

  Fall, Men, Glasses

  Arthur Helps (1873). “Friends in Council: A Series of Readings and Discourse Thereon”, p.25

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• A good taste in art feels the presence or the absence of merit; a just taste discriminates the degree--the poco piu and the poco meno. A good taste rejects faults; a just taste selects excellences. A good taste is often unconscious; a just taste is always conscious. A good taste may be lowered or spoilt; a just taste can only go on refining more and more.

  Anna Brownell Jameson

  Art, Excellence, Degrees

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• Today science prevails not because of its comparative merits, but because the show has been rigged in its favour... It reigns supreme because some past successes have led to institutional measures (education; role of experts; role of power groups such as the AMA) that prevent a comeback of the rivals.

  Paul Feyerabend

  Past, Reign, Today

  "Science in a Free Society". Book by Paul Feyerabend, 1978.

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• Speak but little and well, if you would be esteemed as a man of merit.

  Richard Chenevix Trench

  Men, Would Be, Speech

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• charity is a calm, severe duty; it must be intellectual, to be advantageous. It is a strange mistake that it should ever be considered a merit; its fulfillment is only what we owe to each other, and is a debt never paid to its full extent.

  Letitia Elizabeth Landon

  Mistake, Compassion, Intellectual

  Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1857). “The Complete Works of L. E. Landon ...”

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• The institution of religion exists only to keep mankind in order, and to make men merit the goodness of God by their virtue. Everything in a religion which does not tend towards this goal must be considered foreign or dangerous.

  Voltaire

  Men, Order, Goal

  Voltaire (2015). “Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary”, p.166, Voltaire

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• I listen to tons of hard rock and metal, like Iron Maiden, Motorhead, etc., but I also listen to Beethoven and Mozart, to Discharge and the Bad Brains, and to Charlie Parker and Duke Ellington. So I think there's merit to both the melodic punk and to the hardcore stuff too.

  Dave Smalley

  Thinking, Rocks, Iron

  Source: www.pmakid.com

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• People who do really dangerous tasks can't afford to sit around and discuss the merits of what they're doing.

  Sebastian Junger

  People, Tasks, Dangerous

  "Oscar Nominee Sebastian Junger Speaks About His Year in Deadliest Place on Earth". Interview With Joshua Kors, www.huffingtonpost.com. February 18, 2011.

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