Charles Caleb Colton Quotes

Personally, I have never considered myself corrupt or seen the need to be so. People are judged as what they are perceived to be.

Character is like a tree, and reputation is like its shadow.

Honest people will respect us for our merit: the public, for our luck.

One cannot seek to uphold honor in a being that has none.

But Father has also taught him: Treat a man as if he had a fine reputation to protect, and he will usually endeavor to deserve it.

Reputation is rarely proportioned to virtue.

I think character is real important. And you know, and I think the public does.

Next to doing the right thing, the most important thing is to let people know you are doing the right thing.

Character is better than ancestry, and personal conduct is of more importance than the highest.

I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.

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

Be honorable yourself if you wish to associate with honorable people

The more things a man is ashamed of, the more respectable he is.

People can have whatever ideas that they like. But what I'm not OK with is my character being in question.

Virtue is the first title of nobility.

Act with honor, and Honor will aid you

There is hardly that person to be found who is not more concerned for the reputation of wit and sense, than honesty and virtue.

Very few reputations are gained by unsullied virtue.

It is often the case that a man who can't tell a lie thinks he is the best judge of one.

Remember that reputation and integrity are your most valuable assets - and can be lost in a heartbeat.

I have never made it a consideration whether the subject was popular or unpopular, but whether it was right or wrong; for that which is right will become popular, and that which is wrong, though by mistake it may obtain the cry or fashion of the day, will soon lose the power of delusion, and sink into disesteem.

Speak only that which will bring you honor.

A man's character is the reality of himself; his reputation, the opinion others have formed about him; character resides in him, reputation in other people; that is the substance, this is the shadow.

One's sense of honor is the only thing that does not grow old, and the last pleasure, when one is worn out with age, is not, as the poet said, making money, but having the respect of one's fellow men.

The difference between weakness and wickedness is much less than people suppose; and the consequences are nearly always the same.