I shall make it the most agreeable part of my duty to study merit, and reward the brave and deserving.
… one of the most meritorious men in America
I am the good girl and I always play the good girl. It's nice to do that.
Let the good service of well-deservers be never rewarded with loss. Let their thanks be such as may encourage more strivers for the like.
Merit rarely goes unrewarded.
Virtue is everywhere that which is thought praiseworthy; and nothing else but that which has the allowance of public esteem is called virtue.
Be thou the first true merit to befriend, his praise is lost who stays till all commend.
Praise, of all things, is the most powerful excitement to commendable actions, and animates us in our enterprises.
To honor with hymns and panegyrics those who are still alive is not safe; a man should run his course and make a fair ending, and then we will praise him; and let praise be given equally to women as well as men who have been distinguished in virtue.
