There is very little moral mixture in the 'Antislavery' feeling of this country. A great deal is abstract philanthropy; part is hatred of slaveholders; a great part is jealousy for white labor, very little is consciousness of wrong done and the wish to right it.
Reputation is favorable notoriety as distinguished from fame, which is permanent approval of great deeds and noble thoughts by the best intelligence of mankind.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Reputation is about how others view us based on our actions, while fame is the lasting recognition for significant accomplishments.
This quote by George William Curtis highlights the distinction between reputation and fame. Reputation refers to the perception of an individual based on their actions and the impressions they leave on others, emphasizing that it is favorable notoriety. In contrast, fame is depicted as a more enduring recognition, tied to noteworthy achievements and moral integrity, validated by the collective judgment of the best minds in society. Curtis prompts us to reflect on how our actions contribute to our reputation while also recognizing the deeper, lasting impact of our more significant deeds.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the importance of personal integrity in leadership, one might say, 'As George William Curtis said, 'Reputation is favorable notoriety...'
More from George William Curtis
All quotes βI think that to have known one good, old man-one man, who, through the chances and mischances of a long life, has carried his heart in his hand, like a palm-branch, waving all discords into peace-helps our faith in God, in ourselves, and in each other more than many sermons
The fragrance always stays in the hand that gives the rose.
Similar quotes
The ulterior motives with which you absorb and assimilate Evil are not your own but those of Evil. _x000D_ The animal wrests the whip from its master and whips itself in order to become master, not knowing that this is only a fantasy produced by a new knot in the master's whiplash.
No one may pride himself at being more than an individual, and no one despondently think that he is not an individual.
One often hears of a horse that shivers with terror, or of a dog that howls at something a mans eyes cannot see, and men who live primitive lives where instinct does the work of reason are fully conscious,of many things we cannot perceive at all. As life becomes more orderly, more deliberate, the supernatural world sinks farther away.
You become like what you worship. When you gaze in awe, admiration, and wonder at something or someone, you begin to take on something of the character of the object of your worship.
All things are God's already; we can give him no right, by consecrating any, that he had not before, only we set it apart to his service - just as a gardener brings his master a basket of apricots, and presents them; his lord thanks him, and perhaps gives him something for his pains, and yet the apricots were as much his lord's before as now.
Every man's death is standing in for every other. And since death comes to all there is no way to abate the fear of it except to love the man who stands for us.