“Assuredly men of merit are never lacking at any time, for those are the men who manage affairs, and it is affairs that produce the men. I have never searched, and I have always found under my hand the men who have served me, and for the most part I have been well served.” MenWellsHas BeensHandsFoundProduceHe ManAffairManageMeritLacking Author:Catherine the Great
“There is no merit in being truthful when one is truthful by nature, or rather when one can be nothing else; it is a gift, like poetry or music. But it needs courage to be truthful after carefully considering the matter, unless a kind of pride is involved; for example, the man who says to himself, "I am ugly," and then says, "I am ugly" to his friends, lest they should think themselves the first to make the discovery.” ThinkingMenNeedsShouldFirstsKindMatterExampleHe ManPrideInvolvedDiscoveryUglyMeritTruthfulConsideringBeing TruthfulI Am Ugly Author:Eugene Delacroix
“In giving of thy alms, inquire not so much into the person, as his necessity. God looks not so much upon the merits of him that requires, as into the manner of him that relieves; if the man deserve not, thou hast given it to humanity.” IfsMenGivingLooksPersonsHumanityGivenHe ManDeserveCharityMeritAlms Author:Francis Quarles
“To be an object of hatred and aversion to their contemporaries has been the usual fate of all those whose merit has raised them above the common level. The man who submits to the shafts of envy for the sake of noble objects pursues a judicious course for his own lasting fame. Hatred dies with its object, while merit soon breaks forth in full splendor, and his glory is handed down to posterity in never-dying strains.” MenHas BeensDiesCoursesLevelsCommonBreakFateDyingObjectsHe ManFameGloryHatredRaisedSakeEnvyNoblePursueMeritLastingUsualSubmitStrainPosteritySplendorAversion Author:Thucydides
“Lives there the man with soul so dead as to disown the wish to merit the people's applause, and having uttered words worthy to be kept in cedar oil to latest times, to leave behind him rhymes that dread neither herrings nor frankincense.” PeopleMenSoulPoetryWishBehindsHe ManWorthyOilMeritDreadRhymeApplauseCedarsHerringTime To LeaveFrankincense Author:Aulus Persius Flaccus
“The man who barely abstains from violating either the person, or the estate, or the reputation of his neighbours, has surely very little positive merit. He fulfils, however, all the rules of what is peculiarly called justice, and does every thing which his equals can with propriety force him to do, or which they can punish him for not doing. We may often fulfil all the rules of justice by sitting still and doing nothing.” MenMayLittlesPersonsDoeStillsForceJusticeHe ManSittingReputationMeritEstatesDoing NothingNeighbourProprietySitting Still Book:The Essays on Philosophical Subjects: the Great Master Source: The Essays on Philosophical Subjects: the Great Master