Jean de la Bruyere Merit Quotations

I am told so many ill things of a man, and I see so few in him, that I begin to suspect he has a real but troublesome merit, as being likely to eclipse that of others.

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.]

The same principle leads us to neglect a man of merit that induces us to admire a fool. [Fr., Du meme fonds dont on neglige un homme de merite l'on sait encore admirer un sot.]

Modesty is to merit, what shade is to figures in a picture; it gives it strength and makes it stand out.

It is the glory and merit of some men to write well and of others not to write at all.

When we are dead we are praised by those who survive us, though we frequently have no other merit than that of being no longer alive.

A lofty birth or a large fortune portend merit, and cause it to be the sooner noticed.

A coxcomb is the blockhead's man of merit.