If you wish in this world to advance your merits you're bound to enhance; you must stir it and stump read more

If you wish in this world to advance your merits you're bound to enhance; you must stir it and stump it, and blow your own trumpet, or, trust me, you haven't a chance.

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely
read more

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?

He who sows the ground with care and diligence acquires a greater stock of religious merit than he could gain read more

He who sows the ground with care and diligence acquires a greater stock of religious merit than he could gain by the repetition of ten thousand prayers

There is merit without elevation, but there is no elevation
without some merit.
[Fr., Il y a du read more

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.]

View the whole scene, with critic judgment scan,
And then deny him merit if you can.
Where read more

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.

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

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.]

True merit, like a river, the deeper it is, the less noise it makes.

True merit, like a river, the deeper it is, the less noise it makes.

There's a proud modesty in merit; averse from asking, and resolved to pay ten times the gifts it asks.

There's a proud modesty in merit; averse from asking, and resolved to pay ten times the gifts it asks.

On their own merits modest men are dumb.

On their own merits modest men are dumb.