Without Merit Quotes

The orphanage taught their girls religious ritual to the Nth degree, and how to make their own clothes. Giti mended uniforms for the soldiers and even sold a few prayer rugs in the marketplace. Self-sufficiency they called it. Ha! ~ Michael Ben Zehabe

The vanity of being known to be trusted with a secret is generally one of the chief motives to disclose it; for, however absurd it may be thought to boast an honour by an act which shows that it was conferred without merit, yet most men seem rather inclined to confess the want of virtue than of importance. ~ Samuel Johnson

I suppose by most girls' standards, Armand is hot. But he shops more than a woman. I'm sure those are not the right words. Note to self: I must think of more masculine ways to describe Armand. ~ Michael Ben Zehabe

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

Reputation ... is as often gained without merit as lost without a crime ... ~ Laetitia Pilkington

Politics is the attempt to achieve power and prestige without merit. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

I find the Doomsday picture Al Gore is painting - a six-meter sea level rise, fifteen times the IPCC number - entirely without merit ... I protest vigorously the idea that the climate reacts like a home heating system to a changed setting of the thermostat: just turn the dial, and the desired temperature will soon be reached. ~ Hendrik Tennekes

Father has occasionally taken Sarah to work and made embarrassing introductions to young interns. I can only imagine what humiliations are in store for me. ~ Michael Ben Zehabe

So, yeah, I have to admit, I had my doubts. But they were without merit. Yet, I waited for the judgment strike of the clock to hit. For Mom to find out Sampson's secret.... -Abrielle, from Made for Me ~ Pamela Schloesser Canepa

The campfires provide enough plain old regular visible light to show this sorry affair for what it is: a bunch of demented Boy Scouts, a jamboree without merit badges or hygiene. ~ Neal Stephenson

The heart is that which lies at the centre of things, and is also formless. It is simple awareness devoid of movement to and fro, of past and future, within and without, merit and harm. Wherever the centre of a thing lies, there lies its heart, for the word 'heart' means centrality. ~ Ajahn Thate

Immediately after 11 September, the U.S. closed down the Somali charitable network Al-Barakaat on grounds that it was financing terror. This achievement was hailed one of the great successes of the 'war on terror.' In contrast, Washington's withdrawal of its charges as without merit a year later aroused little notice. ~ Noam Chomsky

Before I met Ayn Rand, I was a logical positivist, and accordingly, I didn't believe in absolutes, moral or otherwise. If I couldn't prove a proposition with facts and figures, it was without merit. ~ Alan Greenspan

Politics is the art of achieving prestige and power without merit. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

I turned to Grey again. "The point is, killing someone is almost never the smart move, long term. Sometimes it's got to be done if you want to survive - but the more you do it, the more you risk creating more enemies and buying yourself even more trouble." Grey seemed to consider that for a moment, and then shrugged. "The argument is not entirely without merit. Tell me, wizard, does it give you some sort of satisfaction to protect this man? ~ Jim Butcher

I used to feel like i was on the top of the world. Then one day, i noticed that it felt like i was no longer on the top of the world. I was just floating around inside of it. And then eventually, it felt like the world was on top of me. ~ Colleen Hoover

The step that a lot of people miss is a dispassionate evaluation of the reasons [for rejection]. If you can dispassionately evaluate the reasons for rejection and find them with merit, you can address them; if without merit, you can ignore them. ~ Brian Koppelman

In the new covenant, God doesn't want us to be blessed when we obey the law and cursed when we fail. Doesn't such a system sound awfully similar to the old covenant? Grace is the undeserved, unmerited and unearned favor of God - the moment you try to merit the free favors of God, His grace is nullified. ~ Joseph Prince

Security for agriculture merits serious concern by not only the agricultural community but our nation as a whole. The risk to the U.S. food supply and overall economy is real. ~ Pat Roberts

In the wine world, crusaders would have wine consumers believe that the only wines of merit are something completely indefinable but which they call 'authentic' or 'natural.' ~ Robert M. Parker, Jr.

We believe that if the argument for equality has merit, it does so because it protects difference. Equality used to allow those who differ not to subsume themselves under another's identity but to claim equity for their distinction and the State's protection in maintaining and even defending it. Now, however, equality is being used to erase difference, destroy institutional distinction and remove proper and plural provision for different groups, faiths and organisations ... What is needed here is equity that respects difference not equality that destroys it. ~ Roger Scruton

Let us not ... contend about merit , but let us all be intent on forwarding the common enterprize , and equally enjoy any progress we may make towards succeeding in it; and above all, let us acknowledge the guidance of that Great Being, who has put a spirit in man, and whose inspiration giveth him understanding . ~ Joseph Priestley

Of course, there are things that are indifferent to human opinion – gravity, the moondriven motion of the tides, the boiling point of water. But the finer details of reality – the state of a marriage, artistic merit, a person's true nature – have something delicate and consensual about them. ~ Marcel Theroux

Contemporary poets are skeptical and suspicious even, or perhaps especially, about themselves. They publicly confess to being poets only reluctantly, as if they were a little ashamed of it. But in our clamorous times it's much easier to acknowledge your faults, at least if they're attractively packaged, than to recognize your own merits, since these are hidden deeper and you never quite believe in them yourself. ~ Wislawa Szymborska

You can't foster a relationship with someone who is always checking your performance to make sure it's adequate enough to merit his friendship. ~ Jake Colsen

Finally, the work of the minister tended to be judged by his success in a single area - the saving of souls in measurable numbers. The local minister was judged either by his charismatic powers or by his ability to prepare his congregation for the preaching of some itinerant ministerial charmer who would really awaken its members. The 'star' system prevailed in religion before it reached the theater. As the evangelical impulse became more widespread and more dominant, the selection and training of ministers was increasingly shaped by the revivalist criterion of ministerial merit. The Puritan ideal of the minister as an intellectual and educational leader was steadily weakened in the face of the evangelical ideal of the minister as a popular crusader and exhorter. Theological education itself became more instrumental. Simple dogmatic formulations were considered sufficient. In considerable measure the churches withdrew from intellectual encounters with the secular world, gave up the idea that religion is a part of the whole life of intellectual experience, and often abandoned the field of rational studies on the assumption that they were the natural province of science alone. By 1853 an outstanding clergyman complained that there was 'an impression, somewhat general, that an intellectual clergyman is deficient in piety, and that an eminently pious minister is deficient in intellect. ~ Richard Hofstadter

Mrs Bennet could not help but resent that a handful of pretty girls, even as corpses, attracted more attention from the gentleman than any of her daughters could merit. ~ Debbie Cowens

Change a virtue in its circumstances find it becomes a vice; change a vice in its circumstances, and it becomes a virtue. Regard the same quality from two sides; on one it is a fault, on the other a merit. The essential of a man is found concealed far below these moral badges. ~ Hippolyte Taine

The British are apt to make merits of their stupidities, and to represent their various incapacities as points of good breeding. ~ George Bernard Shaw

To attach no importance to public opinion, is a proof that you do not merit its suffrage. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte

I am a very good housekeeper. which I have no reluctance in doing, because I really think it is my peculiar excellence, and for this reason, I always take care to provide such things as please my own appetite, which I consider as the chief merit in housekeeping. ~ Jane Austen

It is not a merit to tolerate, but rather a crime to be intolerant. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

It seemed as though he had a fundamental belief that the merit of his argument depended on the strength of his feelings about the matter, and since he always felt uncontrollably passionate about everything, then clearly he was always right. ~ John Cleese

No greater injury can be done to any youth than to let him feel that because he belongs to this or that race he will be advanced in life regardless of his own merits or efforts. ~ Booker T. Washington

We had rather do anything than acknowledge the merit of another if we can help it. We cannot bear a superior or an equal. Hence ridicule is sure to prevail over truth, for the malice of mankind, thrown into the scale, gives the casting weight. ~ William Hazlitt

A State, in idea, is the opposite of a Church. A State regards classes, and not individuals; and it estimates classes, not by internal merit, but external accidents, as property, birth, etc. But a church does the reverse of this, and disregards all external accidents, and looks at men as individual persons, allowing no gradations of ranks, but such as greater or less wisdom, learning, and holiness ought to confer. A Church is, therefore, in idea, the only pure democracy. ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge

In science, "fact" can only mean "confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent." I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms. ~ G.K. Chesterton

It wasn't glamorous in my day. In the regions, reporters were seen as such low life that they didn't merit their name in the Radio Times. Now people are interested in being famous. I never gave it a thought. ~ Kate Adie

Legal business has, from the beginning of time, been profitable - to those who have conducted it; because it is concerned with things that touch men's passions very deeply, and because men are willing to pay, and pay highly, for wisdom and skill in the conduct of it. The real merits of the Norman lawyers were, not altruism, but ability, energy, and enthusiasm for their work. ~ Edward Jenks

The great merit of gold is precisely that it is scarce; that its quantity is limited by nature; that it is costly to discover, to mine, and to process; and that it cannot be created by political fiat or caprice. ~ Henry Hazlitt

Babies don't know anything but nipples and lullabies. they splash out looks of wonder on anybody whether they merit it or not. ~ Daniel Woodrell

I love blue more than any other color. I am inordinately attracted to any blue substance: to minerals like turquoise and lapis lazuli, to sapphires and aquamarines; to cobalt skies and blue-black seas; Moslem tiles - and to a blue flower whether or not it has any other merit. ~ Eleanor Perenyi

It is a riddle which shares with the universe the merit of having no answer. ~ W. Somerset Maugham

I know me, and I know that I'm not somebody that particularly merits a lot of screaming and shouting. And there's nothing special about me as opposed to hundreds of thousands of other people everywhere. ~ Daniel Radcliffe

He has to pay people who have a sense of humor. Since he's lacking one," I added, when Ethan didn't laugh. "I understood the joke, Merit," he quietly said, sparkling emerald eyes on me as we began to sway. "I didn't find it funny." "Yes, well, your sense of humor leaves something to be desired." Ethan spun me out and away, then pulled me back again. Stuck-up or not, I had to give him props - the boy could move. "My sense of humor is perfectly well developed," he informed me when our bodies aligned again. "I merely have high standards." "And yet you deign to dance with me." "I'm dancing in a stately home with the owner's daughter, who happens to be a powerful vampire." Ethan looked down at me, brow cocked. "A man could do worse." "A man could do worse," I agreed. "But could a vampire?" "If I find one, I'll ask him." The response was corny enough that I laughed aloud, full and heartily, and had the odd, heart-clenching pleasure of watching him smile back, watching his green eyes shine with the delight of it. ~ Chloe Neill

Thus you may understand that love alone
is the true seed of every merit in you,
and of all acts for which you must atone. ~ Dante Alighieri

And too soon marr'd are those so early made.
The earth hath swallow'd all my hopes but she,
She is the hopeful lady of my earth:
But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart,
My will to her consent is but a part;
An she agree, within her scope of choice
Lies my consent and fair according voice.
This night I hold an old accustom'd feast,
Whereto I have invited many a guest,
Such as I love; and you, among the store,
One more, most welcome, makes my number more.
At my poor house look to behold this night
Earth-treading stars that make dark heaven light:
Such comfort as do lusty young men feel
When well-apparell'd April on the heel
Of limping winter treads, even such delight
Among fresh female buds shall you this night
Inherit at my house; hear all, all see,
And like her most whose merit most shall be:
Which on more view, of many mine being one
May stand in number, though in reckoning none,
Come, go with me. ~ William Shakespeare

Where there is (consideration for) merit karma and demerit karma; true religion is indeed not present there. There is no merit or demerit karma in true religion. True religion is where merit and demerit karma are considered worthy of abandonment and that which is worthy of acceptance is one's Self-form. ~ Dada Bhagwan

Standing on "tip toe", one stands not firmly. Straining in stride, one cannot walk far. Flaunting of deeds, one is unfavorably noticed. Being self-righteous, one is not respected. Boasting of self, one's merit is unrecognized. Glorifying of self, one loses the opportunity for greatness. From the viewpoint of Tao These represent imperfect Te, Valued as are filth or disease. ~ Laozi

fundamental to the concept of an elite is the idea that its members must merit their status in the judgment of others and that they must continually prove by their behavior and actions that they deserve their superior position in society. ~ Thomas R. Martin

Fate seems to scourge some people with her furies, while it ravishes others with her graces with none having done absolutely nothing to suffer the furies or merit the graces. ~ Bangambiki Habyarimana