Meritocracy

Lay very long in bed, discoursing with Mr Hill of most things of a man’s life, and how little merit doth prevail in the world, but only favour—and that for myself, chance without merit brought me in, and that diligence only keeps me so, and will, living as I do among so many lazy people, that the diligent man becomes necessary, that they cannot do anything without him.

Samuel Pepys, Diary of Samuel Pepys, 1669