A penumbra of somber dignity has descended over his reputation.

-Atlas,James
  Of Edmund Wilson. In the NewYork Times, 28  Jul, reviewing David Castronovo Edmund Wilson (1984).

Dead flies causethe ointment of theapothecary tosend forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Ecclesiastes10:1.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being intheformof God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

-Bible (NewTestament)
Philippians 2:5^11.

It ain't often that a man's reputashun outlasts his munny.

-Billings,Josh pseudonym of  Henry Wheeler Shaw
  Josh Billings, His Sayings, ch.39.

Ne porte jamais de bijoux artistiques,  c° a de¤  conside'  re comple'  tement une femme. Don't ever wear artistic jewellery; it wrecks a woman's reputation.

-Colette full name Sidonie Gabrielle Colette
  Gigi.

I am resolved to grow fat and look young till forty, and then slip out of the world with the first wrinkle and the reputation of five-and-twenty.

-Dryden,John
  The Maiden Queen, act 3, sc.1.

They, who would combat general authority with particular opinion, must first establish themselves a reputation of understanding better than other men.

-Dryden,John
  'The  Author's  Apology for Heroic Poetry and Heroic Licence', an essay prefacing State of Innocence, a libretto based on Paradise Lost.

No major institution in the US has so poor a record of performance over so long a period as the Federal Reserve, yet so high a public reputation.

-Friedman, Milton
  'The Fed Has No Clothes', in The Wall Street Journal,15  Apr.

Wisdom without honesty is mere craft and cozenage. And therefore the reputation for honesty must first be gotten; which cannot be but by living well. A good life is a main argument.

-Jonson, Ben
Timber: or Discoveries made upon Men and Matter (published 1640).

Worldly wisdom teaches us that it is better for the reputation to fail conventionally than to succeed unconventionally.

-Keynes (of Tilton),John Maynard, 1st Baron
  The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money.

If we have violated any law, it was not done intentionally. We have injured no man's reputation, character, person, or property.We were meeting together to preserve ourselves, our wives, and our children from utter degradation and starvation.

-Loveless, George
  Statement to the Dorchester Assizes, Mar, on behalf of the Tolpuddle martyrs.

The key is to be a porcupineöhave a reputation for being difficult.

-Matthews, ChristopherJ
Advice for success in the political world. Quoted in Hedrick Smith The Power Game (1988).

Until you've lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was or what freedom really is.

-Mitchell, Margaret
  Rhett Butler. Gone  with  the Wind, ch.9.

If your daughters are inclined to love reading, do not check their inclination by hindering them of the diverting part of it. It is as necessary for the amusement of women as the reputation of men; but teach them not to expect anyapplause from it† Ignorance is as much the fountain of vice as idleness, and indeed generally produces it. People that do not read or work for a livelihood have many hours they know not how to employ, especially women, who commonly fall into vapours or something worse.

-Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley ne¤  e Pierrepoint
  Letter,  Jan. Collected in R Halsband (ed) Selected Letters of Lady Mary  Wortley Montagu (1970).

William behaved like a bashful girl, who is afraid of her lover's bad reputation and therefore avoids being alone with him.

-Napoleon I
Of  William I of Prussia, who invited other German Princes to attend a meeting with Napoleon at Baden-Baden in  June originally intended to be a private discussion on the possibility of a joint alliancewith Russia. Quotedin  A  JP  Taylor Struggle for Mastery in Europe1848^1918 (1954), p.121.

At ev'ry word a reputation dies.

-Pope, Alexander
  The Rape of the Lock, canto 3, l.16.

   A bad reputation is like a hangover. It takes a while to get rid of, and it makes everything else hurt.

-Preston,James E
  In Fortune,10 Feb.

The Rev St John Froude put the phone down thoughtfully. The notion that he was sharing the house with a disembodied and recently murdered woman was not one that he had wanted to put to his caller. His reputation for eccentricity was already sufficiently widespread without adding to it.

-Sharpe,Tom (Thomas Ridley)
  Wilt, ch.19.

There needs no small degree of address to gain the reputation of benevolence without incurring the expense.

-Sheridan, Richard Brinsley
  Joseph Surface.The School for Scandal, act 5, sc.1.

The Admiral said,'You could never callö I assure you it would not do at all! She gets down from the table without saying 'please', Forgets her prayers and to cross herT's, In short, her scandalous reputation Has shocked the whole of the Hellish nation'.

-Sitwell, Dame Edith Louisa
  Fa c° ade,'En Famille'.