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Thy father's merit sets thee up to view,
And shows thee in the fairest point of light,
To make thy virtues, or thy faults, conspicuous.
Author: Joseph Addison
Source: Cato (act I, sc. 2)
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View the whole scene, with critic judgment scan,
And then deny him merit if you can.
Where he falls short, 'tis Nature's fault alone
Where he succeeds, the merit's all his own.
Author: Charles Churchill
Source: The Rosciad (l. 1,023)
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It sounds like stories from the land of spirits,
If any man obtain that which he merits,
Or any merit that which he obtains.
Author: Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Source: Complaint
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On their own merits modest men are dumb.
Author: George Colman ("The Younger")
Source: Epilogue to The Heir-at-Law
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The favor of princes does not preclude the existence of merit,
and yet does not prove that it exists.
[Fr., La faveur des princes n'exclut pas le merite, et ne le
suppose pas aussi.]
Author: Jean de la Bruyere
Source: Les Caracteres (XII)
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The same principle leads us to neglect a man of merit that
induces us to admire a fool.
[Fr., Du meme fonds dont on neglige un homme de merite l'on sait
encore admirer un sot.]
Author: Jean de la Bruyere
Source: Les Caracteres (XII)
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The world rewards the appearance of merit oftener than merit
itself.
[Fr., Le monde recompense plus souvent les apparences de merite
que le merite meme.]
Author: Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
Source: Maximes (166)
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There is a season for man's merit as well as for fruit.
[Fr., Le merite des hommes a sa saison aussi bien que les
fruits.]
Author: Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
Source: Maximes (291)
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There is merit without elevation, but there is no elevation
without some merit.
[Fr., Il y a du merite sans elevation mais il n'y a point
d'elevation sans quelque merite.]
Author: Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
Source: Maximes (401)
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By merit raised
To that bad eminence.
Author: John Milton
Source: Paradise Lost (bk. II, l. 5)
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We should try to succeed by merit, not by favor. He who does
well will always have patrons enough.
[Lat., Virtute ambire oportet, non favitoribus.
Sat habet favitorum semper, qui recte facit.]
Author: Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Source: Amphitruo--Prologue (LXXVIII)
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The sufficiency of merit is to know that my merit is not
sufficient.
Author: Francis Quarles
Source: Emblems (bk. II, em. 1)
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For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of th' unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin?
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: Hamlet Prince of Denmark (Hamlet at III, i)
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Surely, sir,
There's in him stuff that puts him to these ends;
For, being not propped by ancestry, whose grace
Chalks successors their way, nor called upon
For high feats done to th' crown, neither allied
To eminent assistants, but spiderlike
Out of his self-drawing web, 'a gives us note,
The force of his own merit makes his way,
A gift that heaven gives for him, which buys
A place next to the king.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: The Life of King Henry the Eighth (Norfolk at I, i)
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The world more often rewards the appearances of merit than merit itself.
Author: François Duc de La Rochefoucauld
Source: None
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We start with gifts. Merit comes from what we make of them.
Author: Jean Toomer
Source: None
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Charm strikes the sight, but merit wins the soul.
Author: Alexander Pope
Source: None
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Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: None
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Merit is often an obstacle to fortune; the reason is it produces two bad effects, envy and fear.
Author: Proverb
Source: None
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They merit more praise who know how to suffer misery than those who temper themselves in contentment.
Author: Pietro Aretino
Source: None
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Speak little and well if you wish to be esteemed a person of merit.
Author: French Proverb
Source: None
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True merit, like a river, the deeper it is, the less noise it makes.
Author: Edward F. Halifax
Source: None
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There's a proud modesty in merit; averse from asking, and resolved to pay ten times the gifts it asks.
Author: John Dryden
Source: None
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Contemporaries appreciate the man rather than his merit; posterity will regard the merit rather than the man.
Author: Charles Caleb Colton
Source: None
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