quotations about reputation
The blaze of a reputation cannot be blown out, but it often dies in the socket.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
letter to Mrs. Thrale, May 1, 1780
Reputation is a great inheritance.
SENECA
attributed, Day's Collacon
I see my reputation is at stake:
My fame is shewdly gor'd.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Troilus and Cressida
Reputation is in itself only a farthing-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
"Keats", Literary Essays
Are you not ashamed that you give your attention to acquiring as much money as possible, and similarly with reputation and honor, and give no attention or thought to truth and understanding and the perfection of your soul?
PLATO
Apology
Time never fails to bring every exalted reputation to a strict scrutiny.
FISHER AMES
Works of Fisher Ames
It is easier to add to a great reputation than to get it.
PUBLILIUS SYRUS
The Moral Sayings of Publilius Syrus
The strange machinery by which a reputation precedes its source we all know is faulty. Yet how much faith we put in it!
SAMUEL R. DELANY
Dhalgren
Reputation is like a feather, easily blown away.
JOSEPH NORMAN LOCKYER
attributed, Day's Collacon
But further, a man whose extraordinary reputation thus lifts him up to the notice and Observation of mankind, draws a multitude of eyes upon him that will narrowly inspect every part of him.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Spectator, No. 256
Worry about your character and not your reputation, because your character is who you are, and your reputation is only what people think of you.
ANONYMOUS
Reputation is but a synonym of popularity: dependent on suffrage, to be increased or diminished at the will of the voters.
WASHINGTON ALLSTON
Memoirs and Essays
A lost good name is ne'er retriev'd.
JOHN GAY
Fables
The reputation of a man is like a shadow; gigantic when it precedes him, and pigmy in its proportions when it follows.
CHARLES MAURICE DE TALLEYRAND-PÉRIGORD
attributed, Day's Collacon
For how few ambitious men are there, who have got as much fame as they desired, and whose thirst after it has not been as eager in the very height of their reputation, as it was before they became known and eminent among men?
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Spectator, No. 256
A great reputation is as dangerous as a bad one.
TACITUS
attributed, Day's Collacon
Convey a libel in a frown,
And wink a reputation down!
JONATHAN SWIFT
Journal of a Modern Lady
He who attacks another's reputation abandons his own.
AL-JAHM
attributed, Day's Collacon
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
Journal Intime
Reputation is rarely proportioned to virtue; we have seen a thousand people esteemed, either for the merit they had not attained, or for that they no longer possessed.
ST. EVREMOND
attributed, Day's Collacon