Reputation Quotes

We label judges with having the meanest motives, and yet we desire that our reputation and fame should depend upon the judgment of men, who are all, either from their jealousy or preoccupation or want of intelligence, opposed to us - and yet despite their bias, just for the sake of making these men decide in our favor, we peril in so many ways both our peace and our life.

Reputation is like fine china: Once broken it's very hard to repair.

Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends.

After divorce of Pompeia in 62 BC I feel that members of my family should never be suspected of breaking the law. -Meos tam suspicione quam crimine iudico carere oportere

I have more fans and more followers and more supporters. Because the people who actually saw the Joe Frazier Muhammad Ali fight, they saw me win at least nine rounds - the people who know boxing.

Most of what has been written about me is one big blur, but I do remember being described in one simple word that I agree with. It was in a piece that tore me apart for my personal behavior, but the writer said that when the music began and I started to sing, I was "honest."

Do you wish people to speak well of you? Then do not speak at all yourself.

Nothing in his life became him like leaving it.

Every man's reputation proceeds from those of his own household.

I was called a terrorist yesterday... Today I am admired by the very people who said I was one.

If you get to my age in life and nobody thinks well of you, I don't care how big your bank account is, your life is a disaster.

Your neighbors will make judgments about you based on how your lawn and house look, and people who see you passing will judge you based on how clean you keep your car. It's not always fair, but it has always been true. Appearances matter, so make yours a good one.

The art of putting into play mediocre qualities often begets more reputation than is achieved by true merit.

It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

Fools admire everything in an author of reputation.

The people I work with have a very good impression of me for sure, because of how I am.

Worry not that no one knows you; seek to be worth knowing.

If you are going to keep company with me, don't embarrass me.

People are more slanderous from vanity than from malice.

There are few occasions when we should make a bad bargain by giving up the good on condition that no ill was said of us.

I can bear to hear of imputed or real errors. The man who wishes to stand well in the opinion of others must do this; because he is thereby enabled to correct his faults, or remove prejudices which are imbibed against him.

With an evening coat and a white tie, anybody, even a stockbroker, can gain a reputation for being civilized

If a person has built a sound character, it makes but little difference what people say about him, because he will win in the end.

They will tell you tough stories of sharks all over the Cape, which I do not presume to doubt utterly,--how they will sometimes upset a boat, or tear it in pieces, to get at the man in it. I can easily believe in the undertow, but I have no doubt that one shark in a dozen years is enough to keep up the reputation of a beach a hundred miles long.

First impressions never have a second chance.

Rather than caring about whether or not you are known, strive to be worth knowing.

I consider it an indubitable mark of mean-spiritedness and pitiful vanity to court applause from the pen or tongue of man.

Fame is a heavy burden.

I wished my wife to be not so much as suspected. Common traditional saying: Caesar's wife must be above suspicion.

Praise is a more ingenious, concealed, and subtle kind of flattery, that satisfies both the giver and the receiver, though by verydifferent ways. The one accepts it as a reward due to his merit; the other gives it that he may be looked upon as a just and discerning person.

A man who takes himself too seriously will find that no one else takes him seriously.

The other terror that scares us from self-trust is our consistency; a reverence for our past act or word, because the eyes of others have no other data for computing our orbit than our past acts, and we are loath to disappoint them.

If a man continually blusters, if he lacks civility, a big stick will not save him from trouble, and neither will speaking softly avail, if back of the softness there does not lie strength, power.

Take from a man his reputation for probity, and the more shrewd and clever he is, the more hated and mistrusted he becomes.

For that reason, let a prince have the credit of conquering and holding his state, the means will always be considered honest, and he will be praised by everybody because the vulgar are always taken by what a thing seems to be and by what comes of it; and in the world there are only the vulgar, for the few find a place there only when the many have no ground to rest on.

'Tis better to be vile than vile esteemed, When not to be, receives reproach of being, And the just pleasure lost, which is so deemed, Not by our feeling, but by others' seeing.

Love me or hate me, it's one or the other. Always has been. Hate my game, my swagger. Hate my fadeaway, my hunger. Hate that I'm a veteran. A champion. Hate that. Hate it with all your heart. And hate that I'm loved, for the exact same reasons.

One must keep one's character. Earn a character first if you can, and if you can't, then assume one.

From the circumstances of my position, I was often thrown into the society of horse-racers, card-players, fox-hunters, scientific and professional men, and of dignified men; and many a time have I asked myself, in the enthusiastic moment of the death of a fox, the victory of a favorite horse, the issue of a question eloquently argued at the bar, or in the great council of the nation, well, which of these kinds of reputation should I prefer? That of a horse-jockey, a fox-hunter, an orator, or the honest advocate of my country's rights?

The only thing worse than bad health is a bad name.

You are a coward when you even seem to have backed down from a thing you openly set out to do

If a man is often the subject of conversation he soon becomes the subject of criticism.

Human nature is so well disposed towards those who are in interesting situations, that a young person, who either marries or dies, is sure of being kindly spoken of.

It has taken me nearly twenty years of studied self-restraint, aided by the natural decay of my faculties, to make myself dull enough to be accepted as a serious person by the British public; and I am not sure that I am not still regarded as a suspicious character in some quarters.

If we are honest and fair, then we are known by that. If we are not, alas, we are known by that as well. What we want to do is do right, but you have to say it, you have to show it, and not stop.

A man will pass better through the world with a thousand open errors upon his back than in being detected in one sly falsehood. When one is detected, a thousand are suspected.

I have nothing else to say other than I wasn't corrupt, unfair, or greedy. I was smart when it came to making decisions for my company, and I wasn't greedy. I gave to others in charity and donated money to fund programs. I have nothing else to say.

Slander lives upon succession, For ever housed where it gets possession.

Along with success comes a reputation for wisdom.

When you're right, nobody remembers. When you're wrong, nobody forgets.

Would you rather be the world's greatest lover, but have everyone think you're the world's worst lover? Or would you rather be the world's worst lover but have everyone think you're the world's greatest lover? Now, that's an interesting question.

That is very high praise, which is given you by faithful witness.

A man passes for that he is worth. What he is engraves itself on his face, on his form, on his fortunes, in letters of light. Concealment avails him nothing; boasting nothing. There is confession in the glances of our eyes; in our smiles; in salutations; and the grasp of hands.

Unfortunately, there are writers whose only concern is how good they could make themselves look on a title.

Who dispenses reputation? Who makes us respect and revere persons, works, laws, the great? Who but this faculty of imagination? All the riches of the earth are inadequate without its approval.

Fame itself is but an epitaph; as late, as false, as true.

Mrs. Teasdale calls for rescue and Firefly delivers the famous line to his cohorts as they rescue her: "Remember, you're fighting for this woman's honor, which is probably more than she ever did."

Virtue itself scapes not calumnious strokes.

The one thing I want to leave my children is an honorable name.

They call me "a teacher, a fomenter of violence." I would say point blank, "That is a lie. I'm not for wanton violence, I'm for justice."