Merit Quotes

It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them.

Let none presume To wear an undeserved dignity.

The captain of a ship is not chosen from those of the passengers who comes from the best family.

Good wine needs no bush.

Wealth does not bring excellence, but that wealth comes from excellence.

If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mousetrap than his neighbor, though he build his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.

Opportunities will not overlook you because you are wearing overalls.

For I had often said that the best argument I knew for an immortal life was the existence of a man who deserved one as well as Child did.

There is always room for a man of force and he makes room for many. Society is a troop of thinkers and the best heads among them take the best places.

In America, they do not inquire of a stranger, "What is he?" but, "What can he do?"

It is never possible to guarantee success, it is only possible to deserve it.

Success is an ugly thing. Men are deceived by its false resemblances to merit.... They confound the brilliance of the firmament with the star-shaped footprints of a duck in the mud.

When we do not know a person - and also when we do - we have to judge his size by the size and nature of his achievements, as compared with the achievements of others in his special line of business - there is no other way.

To awaken a man who is deceived as to his own merit is to do him as bad a turn as that done to the Athenian madman who was happy in believing that all the ships touching at the port belonged to him.

There is no test of literary merit except survival, which is itself an index to majority opinion.

The mark of extraordinary merit is to see those most envious of it constrained to praise.

Life operates by deserve. So, in leading people, learn to work with the people who deserve it, not the people who need it.

Honourable mention encourages science, and merit is fostered by praise.

We should not judge a man's merits by his great qualities, but by the use he makes of them.

Some people displease with merit, and others' very faults and defects are pleasing.

The best things and best people rise out of their separateness; I'm against a homogenized society because I want the cream to rise.

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

Do not look only at yourself, and you will see much. Do not justify yourself, and you will be distinguished. Do not brag, and you will have merit. Do not be prideful, and your work will endure.

We must have kings, we must have nobles; nature is always providing such in every society; only let us have the real instead of the titular. In every society some are born to rule, and some to advise. The chief is the chief all the world over, only not his cap and plume. It is only this dislike of the pretender which makes men sometimes unjust to the true and finished man.

That is honor's scornWhich challenges itself as honor's bornAnd is not like the sire. Honors thriveWhen rather from our acts we them deriveThan our foregoers.

When a highly successful leader retires after a long career, it is very unlikely that his successor will be of comparable caliber. Anyone of similar ability and drive would have gone somewhere else, instead of waiting in the wings for years for a chance to show his own leadership.

No one can guarantee success in war, but only deserve it.

Soldiers generally win battles; generals get credit for them.

Only those books come down which deserve to last . All the gilt edges, vellum and morocco, all the presentation copies to all the libraries will not preserve a book in circulation beyond its intrinsic date.

Virtue is not hereditary.

The right of commanding is no longer an advantage transmitted by nature; like an inheritance, it is the fruit of labors, the price of courage.

The sufficiency of my merit is to know that my merit is not sufficient.

I propose that a teacher's pay be tied to merit, not tenure. And I propose that a teacher's employment be tied to performance, not just showing up.

It may be remarked in passing that success is an ugly thing. Men are deceived by its false resemblences to merit.

The force of his own merit makes his way-a gift that heaven gives for him.

Don't be concerned that you have no position; be concerned how you may fit yourself to occupy one. .

Praise us as we are tasted, allow us as we prove.

I shall make it the most agreeable part of my duty to study merit, and reward the brave and deserving.

I have the world heavyweight title not because it was 'given' to me, not because of my race or religion, but because I won it in the ring through my own boxing ability.

There is not a single crowned head in Europe whose talents or merit would entitle him to be elected a vestryman by the people of any parish in America.

Success is a very hideous thing. Its false resemblance to merit deceives men.

If the fairest features of the landscape are to be named after men, let them be the noblest and worthiest men alone.

Whoever serves his country well has no need of ancestors.

You don't have to deserve your mother's love. You have to deserve your father's.

The arrogance that accompanies merit offends us even more than the arrogance of people who are lacking in merit: since merit itself offends us.

Do well and you will have no need for ancestors.

My respect for human beings is based not on the colour of a man’s skin nor authority he may wield, but purely on merit.

The mice which helplessly find themselves between the cats teeth acquire no merit from their enforced sacrifice.

Only where there is pecuniary equality can the distinction of merit stand out.

Give me a man with a good allowance of nose,... when I want any good head-work done I choose a man - provided his education has been suitable - with a long nose.

The world more often rewards the appearances of merit than merit itself.

Men of high learning and abilities are few in every country; and by taking in those who are not so, the able part of the body have their hands tied by the unable.

All men are equal in nature, and also in original sin. It is in the merits and demerits of their actions that they differ.

Authors should be honored only for their works.

The man who commands efficiently must have obeyed others in the past, and the man who obeys dutifully is worthy of someday being a commander.

We can not guarantee success, we can strive to deserve it.

The persons who constitute the natural aristocracy, are not found in the actual aristocracy, or, only on its edge; as the chemicalenergy of the spectrum is found to be greatest just outside of the spectrum.

Life responds to deserve and not to need.

Bonaparte knew but one merit, and rewarded in one and the same way the good soldier, the good astronomer, the good poet, the good player.

He who obeys with modesty appears worthy of being some day a commander.