“More glorious to merit a sceptre than to possess one.”
“The world more often rewards outward signs of merit than merit itself.”
“One merit of poetry few persons will deny: it says more and in fewer words than prose.”
“Arrogance on the part of the meritorious is even more offensive to us than the arrogance of those without merit: for merit itself is offensive.”
“There is more in the atonement by way of merit, than there is in all human sin by way of demerit.”
“There is no more merit in having read a thousand books than in having ploughed a thousand fields.”