If you wish in this world to advance your merits you're bound to enhance; you must stir it and stump read more

If you wish in this world to advance your merits you're bound to enhance; you must stir it and stump it, and blow your own trumpet, or, trust me, you haven't a chance.

Contemporaries appreciate the man rather than his merit; posterity will regard the merit rather than the man.

Contemporaries appreciate the man rather than his merit; posterity will regard the merit rather than the man.

He merits no thanks who does a kindness for his own ends

He merits no thanks who does a kindness for his own ends

View the whole scene, with critic judgment scan,
And then deny him merit if you can.
Where read more

View the whole scene, with critic judgment scan,
And then deny him merit if you can.
Where he falls short, 'tis Nature's fault alone
Where he succeeds, the merit's all his own.

The more merit, the less affection

The more merit, the less affection

The world more often rewards the appearances of merit than merit itself.

The world more often rewards the appearances of merit than merit itself.

The world rewards the appearance of merit oftener than merit
itself.
[Fr., Le monde recompense plus souvent les read more

The world rewards the appearance of merit oftener than merit
itself.
[Fr., Le monde recompense plus souvent les apparences de merite
que le merite meme.]

Merit is much more cheaply acknowledged than rewarded

Merit is much more cheaply acknowledged than rewarded

The favor of princes does not preclude the existence of merit,
and yet does not prove that it exists.
read more

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.]