Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Related Quotes

Pierre Cornielle

In a noble soul, merit alone should light the flame of love.

Character | Light | Love | Merit | Soul | Wisdom |

Charles de Saint-Évremond, fully Charles Marguetel de Saint-Denis, seigneur de Évremond

Reputation is rarely proportioned to virtue. We have seen a thousand people esteemed, either for the merit they had not yet attained or for that they no longer possessed.

Character | Merit | People | Reputation | Virtue | Virtue |

Henry Fielding

Though we may sometimes unintentionally bestow our beneficence on the unworthy, it does not take from the merit of the act. For charity doth not adopt the vices of its objects.

Character | Charity | Merit |

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Confronted by outstanding merit in another, there is no way of saving one's ego except by love.

Character | Ego | Love | Merit |

Aaron Hill

There is no merit where there is no trial; and, till experience stamps the mark of strength, cowards may pass for heroes, faith for falsehood.

Character | Experience | Faith | Falsehood | Merit | Strength |

Harry Graham, Fully Jocelyn Henry Clive 'Harry' Graham

Though the noblest disposition you inherit, And your character with piety is pack'd, All such qualities have very little merit unaccompanied by Tact.

Character | Little | Merit | Piety | Qualities | Tact |

Claude-Adrien Helvétius

To be loved, we should merit but little esteem; all superiority attracts awe and aversion.

Awe | Character | Esteem | Little | Merit | Superiority |

Alexander Pope

Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.

Character | Merit | Soul | Wisdom |

William Morley Punshon

There are difficulties in your path. Be thankful for them. They will test your capabilities of resistance; you will be impelled to persevere from the very energy of the opposition. But what of him that fails? What does he gain? Strength for life. The real merit is not in the success but in the endeavor; and win or lose, he will be honored and crowned.

Character | Energy | Life | Life | Merit | Opposition | Strength | Success | Will |

Moshe Schwab

When we pray, we should feel the seriousness of speaking directly to the Almighty. The concept of seriousness should not be mistaken for sadness since sadness is a transgression. Seriousness should stem from the true joy of fulfilling a mitzvah [biblical law or good deed], the joy of having the merit to pray to the Almighty.

Character | Good | Joy | Law | Merit | Sadness |

Yorah Daiah

It is especially important to express your feelings of joy when giving charity to a poor person. Show the person you are glad to be able to help him out. Showing displeasure giving charity erases the merit of giving.

Character | Charity | Feelings | Giving | Important | Joy | Merit |

John Austin

The existence of law is one thing; its merit or demerit is another.

Existence | Law | Merit | Wisdom |

Christian Nestell Bovee

In politics, merit is rewarded by the possessor being raised, like a target, to a position to be fired at.

Merit | Politics | Position | Wisdom |

Albert Einstein

Do not pride yourself on the few great men who, over the centuries, have been born on your earth through no merit of yours. Reflect, rather, on how you have treated them at the time, and how you have followed their teachings.

Earth | Men | Merit | Pride | Time | Wisdom |

Francis Alexander "F.A." Durivage, wrote under pen name "Old Un"

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

Labor | Light | Merit | Success | Wisdom |