Pre-eminence

Comportment, Propriety of Appearance, and Generosity in dealing, reflect true Honour on Nobility; and, Reality, derive their superior Rank, as much from the Pre-eminence of their Virtues, as from the constitutional Dignity of their Titles?

An Essay on the Antient and Modern State of Ireland Henry Brooke

Then was the Motto of the Crown, or of the chief Ensign of Pre-eminence, _Digniori detur_, and so continued till the Degeneracy of Time, and the baneful Growth of

An Essay on the Antient and Modern State of Ireland Henry Brooke

Pre-eminence was reached only by intellectual superiority, clear-sightedness, eloquence, munificence, and bravery.

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 7: Gregory XII-Infallability 1840-1916 1913

But since the Cause of all is super-full of all, as beseems the One superfluity which surpasses all, He is sung as Holy of Holies and the rest, as beseems an overflowing Cause, and a towering Pre-eminence.

Dionysius the Areopagite, Works (1897) Dionysius the Areopagite 1897

Or if the gawdy Charms of Pre-eminence are so strong that they leave him no Sense of a less pompous, tho 'a more rational Enjoyment, none sure can envy him but those who are the Dupes of an equally fantastick Ambition.

An Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber, Volume I 1889

To be employ'd on the Stage was the Delight of his Life; to be justly excused from it was the Joy of mine: I lov'd Ease, and he Pre-eminence: In that, he might be more commendable.

An Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber, Volume I 1889

Pre-eminence among the most successful foreign cultivators of this Polish dance has, however, been accorded to Spohr and Weber.

Frederic Chopin as a Man and Musician Niecks, Frederick 1888

"Tree of Pre-eminence," lays the poetic Persian, of whose land it is a native; "Tree of Paradise" (_Arbor de Paraiso_), echoes the Spaniard, of whose land it is an exotic.

The Quadroon Adventures in the Far West Mayne Reid 1850

Pre-eminence is sweet to those who love it, even under mediocre circumstances.

Daniel Deronda George Eliot 1849

Pre-eminence of the husbandman who produces, over the artificer who prepares.

Reflections on the Formation and Distribution of Wealth 1770