Mere bashfulness without merit is awkward; and merit without modesty, insolent. But modest merit has a double claim to acceptance, and generally meets with as many patrons as beholders. Joseph Addison
Eminence without merit earns deference without esteem. Nicolas Chamfort
Mere bashfulness without merit is awkwardness. Joseph Addison
Politics is the attempt to achieve power and prestige without merit. P. J. O'Rourke
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
Sir, he throws away his money without thought and without merit. I do not call a tree generous that sheds its fruit at every breeze. Samuel Johnson