Merit

Famous quotes containing the word merit:

    “Dug from the tomb of taste-refining time,
    Each form is exquisite, each block sublime.
    Or good, or bad,—disfigur’d, or deprav’d,—
    All art, is at its resurrection sav’d;
    All crown’d with glory in the critic’s heav’n,
    Each merit magnified, each fault forgiven.”
    —Martin Archer, Sir Shee (1769–1850)

    “Youth enters the world with very happy prejudices in her own favour. She imagines herself not only certain of accomplishing every adventure, but of obtaining those rewards which the accomplishment may deserve. She is not easily persuaded to believe that the force of merit can be resisted by obstinacy and avarice, or its lustre darkened by envy and malignity.”
    —Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)

    “Nobody, I think, ought to read poetry, or look at pictures or statues, who cannot find a great deal more in them than the poet or artist has actually expressed. Their highest merit is suggestiveness.”
    —Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864)