Cautious, careful people always casting about to preserve their reputation or social standards never can bring about reform. Those who are really in earnest are willing to be anything or nothing in the world’s estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathies with despised ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences.
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906) American Civil Rights Leader
Along with success comes a reputation for wisdom.
—Euripides (480–406 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
The worst thing that can happen to a man is to lose his money, the next worst his health, the next worst his reputation.
—Samuel Butler
How many worthy men have we seen survive their own reputations!
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
A good reputation is more valuable than money.
—Publilius Syrus (fl.85–43 BCE) Syrian-born Roman Latin Writer
It is easier to cope with a bad conscience than with a bad reputation.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
To disregard what the world thinks of us is not only arrogant but utterly shameless.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
Reputation is like fine china once broken it’s very hard to repair.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.
—Socrates (469BCE–399BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher
Good will, like a good name, is got by many actions, and lost by one.
—Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey (1773–1850) Scottish Judge, Literary Critic
Concealed talent brings no reputation.
—Desiderius Erasmus (c.1469–1536) Dutch Humanist, Scholar
If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.
—Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) South African Political leader
The soldiers’ blood, the general’s reputation.
—Jamaican Proverb
Glass, china, and reputation are easily cracked, but never well mended.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Better to die than to live on with a bad reputation.
—Vietnamese Proverb
How many people live on the reputation of the reputation they might have made!
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
Reputation is sometimes as wide as the horizon, when character is but the point of a needle.—Character is what one really is; reputation what others believe him to be.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
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
The great difficulty is first to win a reputation; the next to keep it while you live; and the next to preserve it after you die, when affection and interest are over, and nothing but sterling excellence can preserve your name. Never suffer youth to be an excuse for inadequacy, nor age and fame to be an excuse for indolence.
—Benjamin Haydon (1786–1846) English Painter, Writer
Of a dead leopard we keep the skin, of man his reputation.
—Chinese Proverb
Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.
—Henry Kissinger (b.1923) American Diplomat, Academician
How difficult it is to save the bark of reputation from the rocks of ignorance.
—Petrarch (1304–74) Italian Scholar, Poet, Humanist
It is easier for a woman to defend her virtue against men than her reputation against women.
—Unknown
The river’s reputation ends where the sea begins.
—Russian Proverb
When a door opens not to your knock, consider your reputation.
—Arabic Proverb
Whatever ignominy or disgrace we have incurred, it is almost always in our power to reestablish our reputation.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
When ten thousand soldiers lie rotting, the general’s reputation is enhanced.
—Japanese Proverb
If I take care of my character, my reputation will take care of itself.
—Dwight L. Moody (1837–99) Christian Religious Leader, Publisher
Regard your good name as the richest jewel you can possibly be possessed of—for credit is like fire; when once you have kindled it you may easily preserve it, but if you once extinguish it, you will find it an arduous task to rekindle it again.
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809) American Nationalist, Author, Pamphleteer, Radical, Inventor
The easiest way to get a reputation is to go outside the fold, shout around for a few years as a violent atheist or a dangerous radical, and then crawl back to the shelter.
—Unknown