A good name is better than precious ointment. [Ecclesiastes 7:1]
— Bible
It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.
To disregard what the world thinks of us is not only arrogant but utterly shameless.
There are two way of establishing a reputation, one to be praised by honest people and the other to be accused by rogues. It is best, however, to secure the first one, because it will always be accompanied by the latter.
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.
I'd like people to think of me as someone who cares about them.
Reputation is rarely proportioned to virtue.
You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do.
Glass, china, and reputation are easily cracked, and never mended well.
His reputation is what men say he is. That can be damaged; but reputation is for time, character is for eternity.
A remarkable thing about Shakespeare is that he is really very good in spite of all the people who say he is very good.
A reputation once broken may possibly be repaired, but the world will always keep their eyes on the spot where the crack was.
Time goes by, reputation increases, ability declines.
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.
How many people live on the reputation of the reputation they might have made!
What people say behind your back is your standing in the community.
He that has the name to be an early riser may sleep till noon.
Good will, like a good name, is got by many actions, and lost by one.
The blaze of reputation cannot be blown out, but it often dies in the socket; a very few names may be considered as perpetual lamps that shine unconsumed.
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.
We would all like a reputation for generosity and we'd all like to buy it cheap.
Kindly words do not enter so deeply into men as a reputation for kindness.
Until you have lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was or what freedom really is.
If I take care of my character, my reputation will take care of me.
It is generally much more shameful to lose a good reputation than never to have acquired it.
The average person's ear weighs what you are, not what you were.
Should envious tongues some malice frame; to soil and tarnish your good name; Live it Down!
The Bible give us a list of human stories on both sides of the ledger. On list of human stories is used examples -- do what these people did. Another list of human stories is used as warnings -- don't do what these people did. So if your story ever gets in one of these books, make sure they use it as an example, not a warning.
My reputation is a media creation.
No man can understand why a woman shouldn't prefer a good reputation to a good time.
Reputation are made every day and every minute.
I am better than my reputation.
Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I ha lost my reputation, I ha lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial!
My reputation grew with every failure.
It ain't often that a man's reputation outlasts his money.
The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.
— Socrates
A man's judgment is best when he can forget himself and any reputation he may have acquired and can concentrate wholly on making the right decisions.
Ones reputation is like a shadow, it is gigantic when it precedes you, and a pigmy in proportion when it follows.
The reputation of a man is like his shadow, gigantic when it precedes him, and pigmy in its proportions when it follows.
The reputation of a thousand years may be determined by the conduct of one hour.
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.
Reputations will continue to be made by many acts and be lost by one.
Nobody raises his own reputation by lowering others
It is easier for a woman to defend her virtue against men than her reputation against women.
One can survive everything nowadays, except death, and live down anything except a good reputation.
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.