Choose a good reputation over great riches; being held in high esteem is better than silver and gold.
~ Bible, Proverbs 22:1 (NLT)

Ought I not to have been more careful to win the good opinion of others, more determined to conquer their hostility or indifference? It would have been a joy to me to be smiled upon, loved, encouraged, welcomed, and to obtain what I was so ready to give, kindness and goodwill. But to hunt down consideration and reputation—to force the esteem of others—seemed to me an effort unworthy of myself, almost a degradation.
~ Henri-Frédéric Amiel

Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world’s estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathy with despised and persecuted ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences.
~ Susan B. Anthony

“Thou shalt not get found out” is not one of God’s commandments, and no man can be saved by trying to keep it.
~ Leonard Bacon

A reputation for a thousand years may depend upon the conduct of a single moment.
~ Ernest Bramah

Self esteem is the reputation we acquire with ourselves.
~ Nathaniel Branden

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.
~ Warren Buffett

To disregard what the world thinks of us is not only arrogant but utterly shameless. [Negligere quid de se quisque sentiat, non solum arrogantis est, sed etiam omnino dissoluti.]
~ Cicero

The two most precious things this side of the grave are our reputation and our life. But it is to be lamented that the most contemptible whisper may deprive us of the one, and the weakest weapon of the other.
~ Charles Caleb Colton

Concealed talent brings no reputation.
~ Desiderius Gerhard Erasmus

The more ignorant, reckless and thoughtless a doctor is, the higher his reputation soars even amongst powerful princes.
~ Desiderius Gerhard Erasmus

Along with success comes a reputation for wisdom.
~ Euripides

Do not talk about disgrace from a thing being known, when disgrace is, that the thing should exist.
~ William Falconer

A lost good name is ne’er retriev’d.
~ John Gay

Many a man’s reputation would not know his character if they met on the street.
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do.
~ Henry Ford

Glass, China, and Reputation, are easily crack’d, and never well mended.
~ Benjamin Franklin

It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.
~ Benjamin Franklin

They please, are pleased, they give to get esteem,
Till, seeming blest, they grow to what they seem.
~ Oliver Goldsmith, in The Traveller

One lie will destroy a whole reputation for integrity.
~ Baltasar Gracian,  in The Art of Worldly Wisdom

Work is the price which is paid for reputation.
~ Baltasar Gracian

It is a sign that your reputation is small and sinking; if your own tongue must praise you.
~ Matthew Hale

A reputation once broken may possibly be repaired, but the world will always keep their eyes on the spot where the crack was.
~ Joseph Hall

Reputation is character minus what you’ve been caught doing.
~ Michael Iapoce

No man can bring out of the Presidency the reputation which carries him into it.
~ Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Rutledge, 1795

A good name, like good will, is go t by many actions and lost by one.
~ Francis Jeffery

The tree is known by his fruit.
~ Jesus, in the Bible, Matthew 12:33

Never make negative comments or spread rumors about anyone. It depreciates their reputation and yours.
~ Brian Koslow

The love of esteem is the life and soul of society; it unites us to one another : I want your approbation, you stand in need of mine. By forsaking the converse of men, we forsake the virtues necessary for society; for when one is alone, one is apt to grow negligent; the world forces you to have a guard over yourself.
~ Marquise de Lambert, in A Mother’s Advice to Her Son

Would you be esteemed? live with persons that are estimable.
~ Marquise de Lambert, in An Essay on Friendship

Good character is like a rubber ball – Thrown down hard – it bounces right back. Good reputation is like a crystal ball – Thrown for gain – shattered and cracked.
~ A. L. Linall, Jr

Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.
~ Abraham Lincoln

And I honor the man who is willing to sink
Half his present repute for the freedom to think,
And, when he has thought, be his cause strong or weak,
Will risk t’other half for the freedom to speak.
~ James Russell Lowell, in A Fable for Critics

Reputation is only a candle, of wavering and uncertain flame, and easily blown out, but it is the light by which the world looks for and finds merit.
~ James Russell Lowell

Until you lose your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was or what freedom really is.
~ Margaret Mitchell

How many worthy men have we seen survive their own reputations!
~ Michael Eyquen de Montaigne

It is easier to cope with a bad conscience than with a bad reputation.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us.
~ Thomas Paine

Judge a man by the reputation of his enemies.
~ Arabian Proverb

The reputation of a man is like his shadow: it sometimes follows and sometimes precedes him, it is sometimes longer and sometimes shorter than his natural size.
~ French Proverb

Better to die than to live on with a bad reputation.
~ Vietnamese Proverb

Should envious tongues some malice frame; to soil and tarnish your good name; Live it Down!
~ Henry Rink

Whoever renders service to many puts himself in line for greatness – great wealth, great return, great satisfaction, great reputation, and great joy.
~ Jim Rohn

Reputation is rarely proportioned to virtue.
~ St. Francis de Sales

Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial.
~ William Shakespeare, in Othello, Act II, scene iii

Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls:
Who steals my purse steals trash; ’tis something, nothing;
’Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name,
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.
~ William Shakespeare, in Othello, Act III, scene iii

If you can’t get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you’d best teach it to dance.
~ William Shakespeare, in The Tragedy of King Richard the Second

Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving.
~ William Shakespeare

The purest treasure mortal times afford is spotless reputation.
~ William Shakespeare

My reputation grows with every failure.
~ George Bernard Shaw

The liar’s punishment is not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.
~ George Bernard Shaw

The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.
~ Socrates

Fame’s a weed, but repute is a slow-growing oak, and all we can do during our lifetimes is hop around like squirrels and plant acorns.
~ Neal Stephenson, in Quicksilver

A good reputation is more valuable than money.
~ Publilius Syrus

Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company.
~ George Washington

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RELATED CONTENT

• Trivia Index
• Index to Great Quotes

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