Quotes About Reputations

Good and Bad and Building and Losing Them

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Whether good or bad, the reputation of an individual business leader or a corporate spokesperson has a huge influence on the reputation of a business and its brands. While building a good reputation is a long-term process, gaining a bad reputation can happen in an instant.

Here is a collection of quotations about good and bad reputations, building a reputation, and losing a reputation.

  • "The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.” — Socrates
  • "Make three correct guesses consecutively and you will establish a reputation as an expert.” — Laurence J. Peter
  • "Many a man's reputation would not know his character if they met on the street.” — Elbert Hubbard
  • "New Yorkers, by reputation, are fast-talking, assertive and easily annoyed; I fit right in.” — Jane Pauley
  • "That's what Rocky is all about: pride, reputation and not being another bum in the neighborhood.” — Sylvester Stallone
  • "I have the reputation of being easygoing. But inside, I'm like nails. I will kill.” — Calvin Klein
  • "I'm stingy and I'm proud of the reputation.” - Ingvar Kamprad
  • "A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.” — Jeff Bezos
  • "Our reputation is more important than the last hundred million dollars.” — Rupert Murdoch
  • "Repetition makes reputation, and reputation makes customers.” — Elizabeth Arden
  • "You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do.” — Henry Ford
  • "The most important thing for a young man is to establish a credit ... a reputation, character.” — John D. Rockefeller
  • "When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.” — Warren Buffett
  • "A reputation for a thousand years may depend upon the conduct of a single moment.” — Ernest Bramah
  • "A reputation once broken may possibly be repaired, but the world will always keep their eyes on the spot where the crack was.” — Joseph Hall
  • "Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for 'tis better to be alone than in bad company.” — George Washington
  • "Character is like a tree, and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.” — Abraham Lincoln
  • "First, make yourself a reputation for being a creative genius. Second, surround yourself with partners who are better than you are. Third, leave them to go get on with it.” — David Ogilvy
  • "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.” — Warren Buffett
  • "It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.” — Benjamin Franklin
  • "Reputation is character minus what you've been caught doing." — Michael Iapoce
  • "Success produces confidence, confidence relaxes industry, and negligence ruins the reputation which accuracy had raised.” — Ben Jonson
  • "There is no advertisement as powerful as a positive reputation traveling fast.” — Brian Koslow
  • "Time goes by, reputation increases, ability declines.” — Dag Hammarskjold