Mere bashfulness without merit is awkwardness.
Joseph Addison
Where we can compete on merit, we do very well.
Jim Barksdale
The merit of originality is not novelty; it is sincerity.
Thomas Carlyle
There's always merit to having a debate.
Ward Churchill
Plagiarists, at least, have the merit of preservation.
Benjamin Disraeli
How vain, without the merit, is the name.
Homer
Arrogance on the part of the meritorious is even more offensive to us than the arrogance of those without merit: for merit itself is offensive.
Friedrich Nietzsche
People are just afraid of things too much. Afraid of things that don't necessarily merit fear.
Frank Ocean
Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.
Alexander Pope
The sufficiency of merit is to know that my merit is not sufficient.
Francis Quarles