Quotes About Meritocracy

Europeans often ask, and Americans do not always explain, how it happens that this great office [the presidency], the greatest in the world, unless we except the Papacy, to which any man can rise by his own merits, is not more frequently filled by great and striking men.

Once lay down the rule that the job comes first and you throw that job open to every individual, man or woman, fat or thin, tall or short, ugly or beautiful, who is able to do that job better than the rest of the world.

I think the world is run by C students.

I loved working on Wall Street. I loved the meritocracy of it and the camaraderie of the trading floor.

Freedom requires us to view people as wanting the opportunity to earn their success.

I'm a capitalist. I believe that people take risk, and there are rewards if they do well; they should lose if they don't.

Nobody is entitled to a promotion to the Supreme Court.

We made history when President Obama appointed Sonia Sotomayor, a proud Latina, the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice. And as the President likes to say, 'Every single one of them wasn't just the best Latino for the job, but the best person for the job.'

nobody is good or valuable because of who their parents are, or bad because their parents are bad. They are as good and valuable as they are in their own words and deeds...

What would be wicked would be to say, 'I will not give this person a job because he belongs to this category of people , and there's some kind of statistical tendency for this category of person to be different from that category ...' Treat them as individuals! Look at the qualifications of this individual, and forget about the group, race, whatever you want to call it, to which he belongs.

Más adelante, en la vida, confías en descansar un poco, ¿no? Crees que te lo mereces. Yo sí, en todo caso. Pero entonces empiezas a comprender que a la vida no le incumbe recompensar el mérito.

I hate to see a young man get ahead on the basis of a famous family name.

This is the age othe common man, they tell us-a title which any man may claim to the extent osuch distinction as he has managed not to achieve.

We have a man [Donald Trump] who judges people based on their performance regardless of your gender, race, your ethnic or religious background.

All have not the same capacity. I would allow a man of intellect to earn more, I would not cramp his talent.

Money has no color. If you can build a better mousetrap, it won't matter whether you're black or white. People will buy it.

Whatever their many vices, wrote Shushtari, the English welcomed and rewarded talent: 'the English have no arbitrary dismissal,' he noted, 'and every competent person keeps his job until he writes his own request for retirement or resignation. More remarkable still is that they take part in most of the festivals and ceremonies of Muslims and Hindus, mixing with the people. They pay great respect to accomplished scholars of whatever sect.

I would rather be governed by the first 2000 people in the Manhattan phone book than the entire faculty of Harvard.

If we pull down those who are most fortunate and successful, shall we not by that very act defeat our own object? Those

The meritocracy defines "community" as a mass of talented individuals competing with one another.

The parental relationship sits outside the the logic of meritocracy and is the closest humans come to grace.

There is no such thing in this world as a pure meritocracy.Nobody gets to the top without being lucky. Luck happens to the most deserving of people and some of the most undeserving.

Doing well is the result of doing good. That's what capitalism is all about.

Socialism is not a meritocracy. By definition it places increasingly confining restraints on those that succeed the most.