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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.

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.

It sounds like stories from the land of spirits, If any man obtain that which he merits, Or any merit that which he obtains.

On their own merits modest men are dumb.

The favor of princes does not preclude the existence of merit, and yet does not prove that it exists.

The same principle leads us to neglect a man of merit that induces us to admire a fool.

The world rewards the appearance of merit oftener than merit itself.

There is a season for man's merit as well as for fruit.

There is merit without elevation, but there is no elevation without some merit.

By merit raised To that bad eminence.

We should try to succeed by merit, not by favor. He who does well will always have patrons enough.

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

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?

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.

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

We start with gifts. Merit comes from what we make of them.

Charm strikes the sight, but merit wins the soul.

Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving.

Merit is often an obstacle to fortune; the reason is it produces two bad effects, envy and fear.

They merit more praise who know how to suffer misery than those who temper themselves in contentment.