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
He that tears away a man’s good name tears his flesh from his bones, and by letting him live gives him only a cruel opportunity of feeling his misery, of burying his better part and surviving himself.
—Robert South (1634–1716) English Theologian, Preacher
A man’s reputation is not in his own keeping, but lies at the mercy of the profligacy of others. Calumny requires no proof. The throwing out of malicious imputations against any character leaves a stain, which no after-refutation can wipe out. To create an unfavourable impression, it is not necessary that certain things should be true, but that they have been said. The imagination is of so delicate a texture that even words wound it.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
For God’s sake (I never was more serious) don’t make me ridiculous any more by terming me gentle-hearted in print… substitute drunken dog, ragged head, seld-shaven, odd-eyed, stuttering, or any other epithet which truly and properly belongs to the gentleman in question.
—Charles Lamb (1775–1834) British Essayist, Poet
Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I ha lost my reputation, I ha lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial!
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
I have visited many countries, and have been in cities without number, yet never did I enter a town which could not produce ten or twelve little great men; all fancying themselves known to the rest of the world, and complimenting each other upon their extensive reputation.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
There are two modes of establishing our reputation—to be praised by honest men, and to be abused by rogues. It is best, however, to secure the former, because it will invariably be accompanied by the latter.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
The purest treasure mortal times afford is spotless reputation; that away, men are but gilded loam or painted clay.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
We would all like a reputation for generosity and we’d all like to buy it cheap.
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do.
—Henry Ford (1863–1947) American Businessperson, Engineer
Not much more can happen to you after you lose your reputation and your wife.
—John Michell (1933–2009) English Esotericist, New Age Writer
One can survive everything nowadays, except death, and live down anything except a good reputation.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
O! reputation, dearer far than life, thou precious balsam, lovely, sweet of smell, whose cordial drops once spilt by some rash hand, not all thy owner’s care, nor the repenting toil of the rude spiller, ever can collect to its first purity and native sweetness.
—Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) English Courtier, Navigator, Poet
How difficult it is to save the bark of reputation from the rocks of ignorance.
—Petrarch (1304–74) Italian Scholar, Poet, Humanist
I’d like people to think of me as someone who cares about them.
—Diana, Princess of Wales (1961–97) English Royal, Humanitarian, Peace Activist
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
A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.
—Jeff Bezos (b.1964) American Entrepreneur, Investor
Perhaps a man’s character was like a tree, and his reputation like its shadow; the shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
See that your character is right, and in the long run your reputation will be right.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
What people say behind your back is your standing in the community.
—E. W. Howe (1853–1937) American Novelist, Editor
Reputation is like fine china once broken it’s very hard to repair.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
Your women of honor, as you call em, are only chary of their reputations, not their persons; and ‘Tis scandal that they would avoid, not men.
—William Wycherley (c.1640–1716) English Dramatist
Few people think more than two or three times a year. I’ve made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
It ain’t often that a man’s reputation outlasts his money.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) (1818–85) American Humorist, Author, Lecturer
In all the affairs of this world, so much reputation is, in reality, so much power.
—John Tillotson
A single lie destroys a whole reputation of integrity.
—Baltasar Gracian (1601–58) Spanish Scholar, Prose Writer
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
Along with success comes a reputation for wisdom.
—Euripides (480–406 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
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
It is easier for a woman to defend her virtue against men than her reputation against women.
—Unknown