Reference > Quotations > Hoyt & Roberts, comps. > Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations
  PREVIOUSNEXT  
CONTENTS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
Hoyt & Roberts, comps.  Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations.  1922.
 
Merit
 
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.
        Addison—Cato. Act I. Sc. 2.		  1
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.
        Churchill—Rosciad. L. 1,023.		  2
It sounds like stories from the land of spirits,
If any man obtain that which he merits,
Or any merit that which he obtains.
        Coleridge—Complaint.		  3
On their own merits modest men are dumb.
        George Colman (The Younger)—Epilogue to The Heir-at-Law.		  4
  La faveur des princes n’exclut pas le mérite, et ne le suppose pas aussi.
  The favor of princes does not preclude the existence of merit, and yet does not prove that it exists.
        La Bruyère—Les Caractères. XII.		  5
  Du même fonds dont on néglige un homme de mérite l’on sait encore admirer un sot.
  The same principle leads us to neglect a man of merit that induces us to admire a fool.
        La Bruyère—Les Caractères. XII.		  6
  Le monde récompense plus souvent les apparences de mérite que le mérite même.
  The world rewards the appearance of merit oftener than merit itself.
        La Rochefoucauld—Maximes. 166.		  7
  Le mérite des hommes a sa saison aussi bien que les fruits.
  There is a season for man’s merit as well as for fruit.
        La Rochefoucauld—Maximes. 291.		  8
  Il y a du mérite sans élévation mais il n’y a point d’élévation sans quelque mérite.
  There is merit without elevation, but there is no elevation without some merit.
        La Rochefoucauld—Maximes. 401.		  9
        By merit raised
To that bad eminence.
        Milton—Paradise Lost. Bk. II. L. 5.		  10
Virtute ambire oportet, non favitoribus.
Sat habet favitorum semper, qui recte facit.
  We should try to succeed by merit, not by favor. He who does well will always have patrons enough.
        Plautus—Amphitruo. Prologue. LXXVIII.		  11
  The sufficiency of merit is to know that my merit is not sufficient.
        Quarles—Emblems. Bk. II. Em. I.		  12
                The spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes.
        Hamlet. Act III. Sc. 1. L. 73.		  13
The force of his own merit makes his way.
        Henry VIII. Act I. Sc. 1. L. 64.		  14
 
 
CONTENTS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
  PREVIOUSNEXT  
 
Loading
Click here to shop the Bartleby Bookstore.
Shakespeare · Bible · Saints · Anatomy · Harvard Classics · Lit. History · Quotations · Poetry
© 1993–2013 Bartleby.com · [Top 150]