This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
False modesty is the masterpiece of vanity: showing the vain man in such an illusory light that he appears in the reputation of the virtue quite opposite to the vice which constitutes his real character; it is a deceit.
Character | Deceit | Light | Man | Modesty | Reputation | Virtue | Virtue | Vice |
Madame Guyon, Jeanne Marie Bouvières de la Mothe Guyon
There are three kinds of silence. Silence from words is good, because inordinate speaking tends to evil. Silence, or rest from desires and passions is still better, because it promotes quietness of spirit. But the best of all is silence from unnecessary and wandering thoughts, because that is essential to internal recollection, and because it lays a foundation for a proper reputation and for silence in other respects.
Better | Character | Evil | Good | Reputation | Rest | Silence | Spirit | Words |
Josiah Gilbert Holland, also Joshua Gilbert Holland
Character lives in a man, reputation outside of him.
Character | Man | Reputation |
A man’s Self is the sum-total of all that he can call his, not only his body, and his psychic powers, but this clothes and his house, his wife and children, his ancestors and friends, his reputation and works, his land and horse and yacht and bank account.
Body | Character | Children | Land | Man | Reputation | Self | Wife |
The only time you have a reputation is when you're not living up to it.
Character | Reputation | Time |
Juvenal, fully Decimus Junius Juvenalis NULL
It is a wretched thing to lean on the reputation of others, lest the pillars being withdrawn the roof should fall in ruins.
Character | Reputation |
John F. Kennedy, fully John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy
War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.
Character | Day | Reputation | War | Will |
A just person knows how to secure his own reputation without blemishing another’s by exposing his faults.
Character | Reputation |
John Tillotson, Archbishop of Canterbury
When a man has once forfeited the reputation of his integrity, he is set fast, and nothing will then serve his turn, neither truth nor falsehood.
Character | Falsehood | Integrity | Man | Nothing | Reputation | Truth | Will |
Character is made by what you stand for; reputation by what you fall for.
Character | Reputation |
Ernest Bramah, born Ernest Brammah Smith
A reputation for a thousand years may depend upon the conduct of a single moment.
Conduct | Reputation | Wisdom |
An honest reputation is within the reach of all men; they obtain it by social virtues, and by doing their duty. This kind of reputation, it is true, is neither brilliant nor startling, but it is often the most useful for happiness.
Duty | Men | Reputation | Wisdom |
There is a broad distinction between character and reputation, for one may be destroyed by slander, while the other can never be harmed, save by its possessor. Reputation is in no man's keeping. You and I cannot determine what other men shall think and say about us. We can only determine what they ought to think of us and say about us.
Character | Distinction | Man | Men | Reputation | Slander | Wisdom | Think |
Nothing inspires confidence in a business man sooner than punctuality, nor is there any habit which sooner saps his reputation than that of being always behind time.
Business | Confidence | Habit | Man | Nothing | Punctuality | Reputation | Time | Wisdom | Business |
It is generally much more shameful to lose a good reputation than never to have acquired it.
Good | Reputation | Wisdom |
A good reputation is more valuable than money.
Good | Money | Reputation | Wisdom |
Lydia Sigourney, fully Lydia Huntley Sigourney, née Lydia Howard Huntley
Lost wealth may be restored by industry, the wreck of health regained by temperance, forgotten knowledge restored by study, alienated friendship smoothed into forgetfulness, even forfeited reputation won by penitence and virtue. But who ever looked upon his vanished hours, recalled his slighted years, stamped them with wisdom, or effaced from Heaven's record the fearful blot of wasted time?
Forgetfulness | Health | Heaven | Industry | Knowledge | Reputation | Study | Time | Virtue | Virtue | Wealth | Wisdom | Friendship |