One can survive everything, nowadays, except death, and live down everything except a good reputation.

About Oscar Wilde

Portrait of Oscar Wilde

Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential dramatists in London in the early 1890s. He was a key figure in...

More quotations from Oscar Wilde

As one reads history . . . one is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted; and a community is infinitely more brutalized by the habitual employment of punishment than it is by the occasional occurrence of crime.

history crime cruelty punishment community

A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.

I am not young enough to know everything.

There's nothing that keeps its youth,
So far as I know, but a tree and truth.

The reason we all like to think so well of others is that we are all afraid for ourselves. The basis of optimism is sheer terror.

More quotations tagged with “reputation”

A good name, like good will, is got by many actions and lost by one.

—Lord Jeffery

Propriety was a rigid master, but one that must be obeyed if one wanted to keep a sterling reputation.

—Lawana Blackwell

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

honesty reputation praise

Reputation is what other people know about you. Honor is what you know about yourself.

—Lois McMaster Bujold

self reputation honor

Are you not ashamed of heaping up the greatest amount of money and honor and reputation, and caring so little about wisdom and truth and the greatest improvement of the soul?

truth wisdom soul money reputation honor

History

11 Jul 2015 Added