Merit

Famous quotes containing the word merit:

“So that if you would form a just judgment of what is of infinite importance to you not to be misled in,—namely, in what degree of real merit you stand ... call in religion and morality.—Look,—What is written in the law of God?—How readest thou?—Consult calm reason and the unchangeable obligations of justice and truth;Mwhat say they?”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)

“O that estates, degrees, and offices
Were not derived corruptly, and that clear honor
Were purchased by the merit of the wearer!”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

“A young man, be his merit what it will, can never raise himself; but must, like the ivy round the oak, twine himself round some man of great power and interest.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)