The honour of a person lies in his needlessness from the people.

Low ambition and the thirst of praise.

Eminence without merit earns deference without esteem.

Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in the consciousness that we deserve them.

The meritocratic conviction that people deserve whatever riches the market bestows on their talents makes solidarity an almost impossible project. For why do the successful owe anything to the less-advantaged members of society? The answer to this question depends on recognizing that, for all our striving, we are not self-made and self-sufficient; finding ourselves in a society that prizes our talents is our good fortune, not our due. A lively sense of the contingency of our lot can inspire a certain humility: “There, but for the grace of God, or the accident of birth, or the mystery of fate, go I.” Such humility is the beginning of the way back from the harsh ethic of success that drives us apart. It points beyond the tyranny of merit toward a less rancorous, more generous public life.

It is more honorable to be raised to a throne than to be born to one. Fortune bestows the one, merit obtains the other.

Everything is equally endowed with great merit, so that it is no longer an honor to be lauded.

Honour often seems a highly artificial convention, but life in any level of society where it has been abandoned astonishes by its tortuousness

[...] for the Doctor observed, that no man takes upon himself small blemishes without supposing that great abilities are attributed to him; and that, in short, this affectation of candour or modesty was but another kind of indirect self-praise, and had its foundation in vanity.

Still, to slaughter fellow-citizens, to betray friends, to be devoid of honour, pity, and religion, cannot be counted as merits, for these are means which may lead to power, but which confer no glory.

People will do the basest things on account of their so-called honour.

Fame in arms or art, however conspicuous, is naught, unless bottomed in virtue.

The only thing of weight that can be said against modern Honour is, that it is directly opposite to Religion. The one bids you bear Injuries with Patience, the other tells you if you don't resent them, you are not fit to live.

Ability without honor is useless.