Merit System Quotes

And now when our maimed soldiers have returned from the Civil War and apply for Federal office, the duties of which they are perfectly competent to discharge, they will be rejected to give places to those who were cramming themselves with facts and principles from the books, while they were bleeding for their country, because they do not know the fluctuations of the tide at the Cape of Good Hope, how near the moon ever approaches the earth, or the names of the principal rivers emptying into the Caspian Sea.

We are teaching the world the great truth, that Governments do better without kings and nobles than with them. The merit will be doubled by the other lesson: the Religion flourishes in greater purity without, than with the aid of Government

In any country where talent and virtue produce no advancement, money will be the national god. Its inhabitants will either have to possess money or make others believe that they do. Wealth will be the highest virtue, poverty the greatest vice.

That is how His Majesty [the Lord] rewards our good works---I mean, by predisposing us to perform better ones.

The market system requires that people be committed and willing to work hard. Inherent with that is what I call a merit system, which I think gives people the greatest opportunity.

Meritocracy is a good thing. Whenever possibly, people should be judged based on their work and results, not superficial qualities.

Any city gets what it admires, will pay for, and, ultimately, deserves.

No executive functionaries should be appointed by popular election: neither by the votes of the people themselves, nor by those of their representatives. The entire business of government is skilled employment; the qualifications for the discharge of it are of that special and professional kind which cannot be properly judged of except by persons who have themselves some share of those qualifications, or some practical experience of them.

Talents & science are sufficient motives with me in appointments to which they are fitted.

In general, every country has the language it deserves.

There's no point in fighting guys when there's no structure, there's no rhyme or reason to who gets the title shot.

So, sir, it comes to this at last, that … the dunce who had been crammed up to a diploma at Yale, and comes fresh from his cramming, will be preferred in all civil service appointments to the ablest, most successful, and most upright business man of the country, who either did not enjoy the benefit of early education, or from whose mind, long engrossed in practical pursuits, the details and niceties of academic knowledge have faded away as the headlands disappear when the mariner bids his native land good night.

Though the first admission to government employment be decided by competitive examination, it would in most cases be impossible that subsequent promotion should be so decided: and it seems proper that this should take place, as it usually does at present, on a mixed system of seniority and selection.

There are no modern successful societies that do not deal with the issues raised by Populists and Fabianists but also avoid going to one of these extremes. The modern battle for power in democartic socities is between Populism and Fabianism.

How can any Action be meritorious of Praise or Dispraise, Reward or Punishment, when the natural Principle of Self-Love is the only and the irresistible Motive to it?

The moral element … ministers, professors, and respectable persons … do not believe politics should be pursued as a trade.

I will not dismiss, or drop from Executive offices, able and faithful political opponents to provide for my own partisans.

It's an elite group. And once you're in the Hall, you're in the Hall. Up until now, I think the voting system has handled things very well. And like I said before, there are no suspicions in the Hall of Fame.

The treatment I have received from the advocates of Civil Service Reform makes my blood boil…. I know what I have done and what I have suffered in this cause and with that I am satisfied as I retire from the struggle. I hope the next man will be better trusted by those who assume to be apostles of the Reform. The cause is worth much — very much; but the people who stand ready to attribute every mistake in the selection of officers to wanton violation of principle and assume to know more of the conditions, motives and intents that those charged with responsibility, are worth nothing

In the early days of the Republic, civil service officers as well as the Presidents and the Cabinet, were generally selected from well-known families…. Andrew Johnson, would not have passed a test by a civil service commission; it would not have required a profound psychological knowledge to arrive at the conclusion, that a man may rise from the tailor shop to … the gubernatorial chair, and yet be morally and intellectually incapable of presiding … over the destinies of a great nation.

Legal immigration should emphasize merit and meeting the needs of the U.S., including specific unmet workforce needs.

It is also absolutely necessary that the examinations should be competitive, and the appointments given to those who are most successful. A mere pass examination never, in the long run, does more than exclude absolute dunces.

In America, as opposed to the old country, success was based on merit.

The idea of a rational bureaucracy, of skill, merit, and consistency, is essential to all modern states.

Forces of Destruction: grades in school, merit system, incentive pay, business plans, quotas.