Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

Men may be popular without being ambitious, but there is hardly an ambitious man who does not try to be popular.

Prestige is the shadow of money and power.

How many people live on the reputation of the reputation they might have made!.

If I were a man who had accomplished what I have, I don't think anyone would ever bring up my past relationships, no matter how famous the people were.

Social standing does not necessarily translate to social acceptance.

Reputation is but a synonym of popularity: dependent on suffrage, to be increased or diminished at the will of the voters.

I consider a good reputation is a great part of the human happiness. Some people, if they are very, very rich can permit themselves certain negligence to their reputations.

A ready means of being cherished by the English is to adopt the simple expedient of living a long time. I have little doubt that if, say, Oscar Wilde had lived into his nineties, instead of dying in his forties, he would have been considered a benign, distinguished figure suitable to preside at a school prize-giving or to instruct and exhort scout masters at their jamborees. He might even have been knighted.

To appear at church every Sunday; to look down upon, and let himself be looked at for an hour by the congregation, is the best means of becoming popular which can be recommended to a young sovereign.

He's liked, but he's not well liked.

Never speak disrespectfully of Society, Algernon. Only people who can’t get into it do that.

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.

Popularity means people think they know you.

There are two modes of establishing our reputation; to be praised by honest men, and to be abused by rogues.

We acquire the love of people who, being in our proximity, are presumed to know us; and we receive reputation or celebrity, from such as are not personally acquainted with us. Merit secures to us the regard of our honest neighbors, and good fortune that of the public. Esteem is the harvest of a whole life spent in usefulness; but reputation is often bestowed upon a chance action, and depends most on success.

Popularity is the one insult I have never suffered.

Your reputation is in the hands of others. That's what the reputation is. You can't control that. The only thing you can control is your character.

Prosperity knits a man to the world. He feels that he is finding his place in it while really it is finding its place in him. His increasing reputation, his widening circle of acquaintances, his sense of importance, the growing pressure of absorbing and agreeable work build up in him a sense of being really at home on earth which is just what we want.

Reputation is a very interesting thing, and I always give people the benefit of the doubt, and I think that there's a part of all of us, especially in a generation where a lot of the stuff gets recorded.

Reputation is the road to power

Either a good or a bad reputation outruns and gets before people wherever they go.

In the end, all you have is your reputation.

You don't get to choose what you get famous for and you don't get to control which of your life's many struggles gets to stand for you.

The only thing worse than bad health is a bad name.

If one's reputation is a possession, then of all my possessions, my reputation means most to me.