The silence that accepts merit as the most natural thing in the world is the highest applause.
Source: Divinity School Address, 15 Jul 1838, at Divinity College, Harvard University, MA; in Addresses and Lectures, 1849.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson, (May 25 1803-1882), US philosopher, poet, essayist; He was the main spokesman of his time for moral optimism and belief in the individual: Self-Reliance, 1844.