Caroline Merit Quotes

Together the magicks swirled and danced around us, invisible but tangible, like an breeze. This wasn't defensive or offensive magic. It wasn't used to gather information, for strategy or diplomacy, or to fight a war against supernatural enemy.
It simply was.
It was fundamental, inexorable. It was nothing and everything, infinity and oblivion, from the magnificent furnace of a star to the electrons that hummed in an atom. It was life and death and everything in between, the urge to fight and grow and swim and fly. It was a cascade of water across boulders, the slow-moving advance of mountain glaciers, the march of time. ~ Chloe Neill

We have no way of knowing, of course, why some are born in health and affluence, while others enter broken bodies or broken homes, or emerge into a realm of war or hunger. So we cannot give definite meaning to our place in the world, or to our neighbor's. But Plato's reflections should give us pause and invite both humility and hope. Humility, because if we chose our lot in life, there is every reason to suspect merit, and not disfavor, is behind disadvantaged birth. A blighted life may have been the more courageous choice
at least it was for Plato ... So how can we feel pride in our own blessedness, or condescension in another's misfortune? And Plato's reflections should give us hope, because his myth reminds us that suffering can be sanctifying, that pain is not punishment ,and that the path to virtue is fraught with opposition. ~ Fiona Givens

Creating a meritocracy requires equal participation by both the hippo, who could rule the day by fiat, and the brave smart creative, who risks getting trampled as she stands up for quality and merit. ~ Eric Schmidt

For me the information has to remain incredibly neutral. It's what I would call 'ice-like' information. I receive very rapid impressions. I don't have to sit there and concentrate. Because, if I start to really focus, my conscious mind begins to apply data, which is not accurate. ~ Caroline Myss

When you study a dog you love, you find beauty in every small detail, and so it is with Lucille: I have become enchanted by the small asymmetrical whorls of white fur on either side of her chest, and by her tail, which she carries in a high confident curve, and by her eyes, which are watchful and intelligent, the color of chestnuts. ~ Caroline Knapp

Franny gave her sister a tired smile. "Oh, my love," she said. "What do the only children do?"

"We'll never have to know," Caroline said. ~ Ann Patchett

Fame is no sure test of merit. ~ Thomas Carlyle

Survival in scarcity dictates nastiness with a rival clan, but also dictates goodness towards our own clan whose support is vital to acquire or defend the necessary scarcities.

Man's nastiness or goodness is not his fault or merit;
They both create the vital coping mechanism to his environment of scarcity. ~ Haroutioun Bochnakian

Success and social promotion are not some right that anybody can claim after queuing at some [government office]. It is better: it is a right, a right that one can merit because of one's sweat. ~ Nicolas Sarkozy

Some people say, "What difference does it make what color the winemaker is that made the wine? Judge the wines off their own merit." Like, of course. And I do believe that my wine is judged off its own merit. But the fact is that when you walk into places and people can't believe that you're the principal or you're the owner or you made the wine, it's mind-blowing to me some days. It's like, wow. That's why we need to continue talking about it. ~ Andre Hueston Mack

You are mine, Merit. ~ Chloe Neill

When you quit drinking you stop waiting. ~ Caroline Knapp

But Scripture praises everywhere his pure and unmixed mercy, which does away with all merit. ~ John Calvin

You're so clean that you're dirty. ~ Caroline Kepnes

It may be remarked in passing that success is an ugly thing. Men are deceived by its false resemblances to merit. To the crowd, success wears almost the features of true mastery, and the greatest dupe of this counterfeit talent is History. ~ Victor Hugo

Being known. This, of course, is the goal, the agenda so carefully hidden it may be unknown even to the self. The cutter cuts to make the pain at her center visible. The anorexic starves to make manifest her hunger and vulnerability. The extremes announce, This is who I am, this is what I feel, this is what happens when I don't get what I need. In quadraphonic sound, they give voice to the most central human hunger, which is the desire to be recognized, to be known and loved because of, and in spite of, who you are; they give voice to the sorrow that takes root when that hunger is unsatisfied. ~ Caroline Knapp

Assurance and intrepidity, under the white banner of seeming modesty, clear the way to merit that would otherwise be discouraged by difficulties. ~ Lord Chesterfield

She had a sort of wild, dangerous intelligence that was often at the root of the trouble she got into, and she saw in him a similar intelligence, a certain way of looking at the world, that had settled in him in a way that it had not quite settled in her, and in a way that she probably hoped it might one day, despite a confidence that was as wild as her intelligence. If there was anyone who might've inspired her to change course, it was him, despite her normal distaste and disregard for most forms of authority. ~ Caroline Zancan

I said, somewhat confused, "What's the problem?"
[Kristy] rolled her eyes. Beside her, Monica said, "Donneven."
"Kristy." Delia shook her head. "This isn't the time or the place, okay?"
"The time or the place for what?" Caroline asked.
"There is never," Kristy said adamantly, "a time or place for true love. It happens accidentally, in a heartbeat, in a single flashing, throbbing moment."
"Throbbing?" my mother said, leaning forward and looking at me. "Who's throbbing?"
"Macy and Wes," Kristy told her.
"We are not," I said indignantly.
"Kristy," Delia said helplessly. "Please God I'm begging you, not now."
"Wait a second, wait a second." Caroline held her hands up. "Kristy. Explain."
"Yes, Kristy," my mother said, but she was looking at me. Not really mad as much as confused. Join the club, I thought. "Explain."
Bert said, "This ought to be good."
Kristy ignored him, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. "Wes wants to be with Macy. And Macy, whether she'll admit it or not, wants to be with Wes. And yet they're not together, which is not only unjust, but really, when you think about it, tragical."
"That's not a word," Bert pointed out.
"It is now," she said. "How else can you explain a situation where Wes, a truly extraordinary boy, would be sent packing in favor of some brainiac loser…"
"Why," I said, feeling embarrassed, "do we have to keep talking about this?"
"Because it's tragical!" Kristy s ~ Sarah Dessen

There is no particular merit in being nice to one's fellow man... We can never establish with certainty what part of our relations with others is a result of our emotions - love apathy, charity of malice - and what part is predetermines by the constant power play among individuals.
True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power. Mankind's true moral test, its fundamental test (which lies deeply buries from view), consists of attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals. And in this respect mankind has suffered a fundamental débâcle, a débâcle so fundamental all others stem from it. ~ Milan Kundera

I read American sagas (of the west) and I do not see people who went in search of material things. I see people who wrote down that what they sought was an escape from an old world which dictated their conscience and established their merit based on who their parents. ~ Alan Keyes

Real merit requires as much labor, to be placed in a true light, as humbug to be elevated to an unworthy eminence; only the success of the false is temporary, that of the true, immortal. ~ Francis Alexander Durivage

We go in and I do my thing, and then we supplement it with whatever we want. ~ Caroline Corr

Self-love increases or diminishes for us the good qualities of our friends, in proportion to the satisfaction we feel with them; and we judge of their merit by the manner in which they act towards us. ~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld

I lied on my Weight Watchers list. I put down that I had 3 eggs ... but they were Cadbury chocolate eggs. ~ Caroline Rhea

I know my mother so well, so it's hard for me to remember that people have a certain image of her, but they don't really know her personality. ~ Caroline Kennedy

There are so many tough opponents out there and tough competitors so I've never liked to look ahead. ~ Caroline Wozniacki

We acquire the love of people who, being in our proximity, are presumed to know us; and we receive reputation or celebrity, from such as are not personally acquainted with us. Merit secures to us the regard of our honest neighbors, and good fortune that of the public. Esteem is the harvest of a whole life spent in usefulness; but reputation is often bestowed upon a chance action, and depends most on success. ~ George Augustus Henry Sala

The Obama administration's agenda of maximizing dependency involves political favoritism cloaked in the raiment of "economic planning" and "social justice" that somehow produce results superior to what markets produce when freedom allows merit to manifest itself, and incompetence to fail. The administration's central activity - the political allocation of wealth and opportunity - is not merely susceptible to corruption, it is corruption. ~ George Will

She felt in her mind the consciousness that she was entitled to hold a higher rank from her merit, than the arbitrary despotism of religious prejudice permitted her to aspire to. ~ Walter Scott

Just let go. Let go of how you thought your life should be, and embrace the life that is trying to work its way into your consciousness. ~ Caroline Myss

I think every period - except for the 14th century, or something - has some merits. ~ Julian Fellowes

While Europe's eye is fix'd on mighty things,
The fate of empires and the fall of kings;
While quacks of State must each produce his plan,
And even children lisp the Rights of Man;
Amid this mighty fuss just let me mention,
The Rights of Woman merit some attention. ~ Robert Burns

All that sunny afternoon, traveling north and east, Caroline believed absolutely in the future. And why not? For if the worst had already happened to them in the eyes of the world, then surely, surely, it was the worst that they left behind them now. ~ Kim Edwards

There is no merit in the renunciation of a beggar. ~ Swami Vivekananda

What offends a great intellect in society is the equality of rights, leading to equality of pretensions, which everyone enjoys; while at the same time, inequality of capacity means a corresponding disparity of social power. So-called good society recognizes every kind of claim but that of intellect, which is a contraband article; and people are expected to exhibit an unlimited amount of patience towards every form of folly and stupidity, perversity and dullness; whilst personal merit has to beg pardon, as it were, for being present, or else conceal itself altogether. Intellectual superiority offends by its very existence, without any desire to do so. The ~ Arthur Schopenhauer

I decided to write short stories because they got rejected quicker. ~ Caroline B. Cooney

I think I became a writer because of my love of stories and an inability to stop asking, 'What if?' ~ Caroline Leavitt

Before you open the lunch menu or order that cheeseburger or consider eating the cake with the frosting intact, haul out the psychic calculator and start tinkering with the budget. ~ Caroline Knapp