Bad Reputation Quotes & Sayings

Some staff doesn't work well under pressure. So I make sure that my staff is very comfortable. I've got a bad reputation for being quite callous when it comes to culling staff. They are selected personally by me. I socialize with all my staff and they know me well and I consider them friends and we travel overseas together. — Charles Teo

Partly, I like a bad reputation. But I also want a reputation of being a good person. — Joan Jett

I began to think, The endowment has had a bad reputation in the last few years, and that's unfair. — Jane Alexander

Cleveland has a very bad reputation, but there's a lot of stuff that's left over from when there were very wealthy people - the Art Museum and a world class symphony that's still world class. — Harvey Pekar

I have really done so few bad things that they have to keep harping on the old ones [.] — L.M. Montgomery

Laugh at a bad reputation. Fear a good one that you could not sustain. — Robert Bresson

It is better to be alone than in bad company. — George Washington

Some urge we do nothing because we can't be certain how bad the (climate) problem might become or they presume the worst effects are most likely to occur in our grandchildren's lifetime. I'm a proud conservative, and I reject that kind of live-for-today, 'me generation,' attitude. It is unworthy of us and incompatible with our reputation as visionaries and problem solvers. Americans have never feared change. We make change work for us. — John McCain

We don't live in the old world. But I don't want everyone to know what I've done. We all know every kind of example we could throw out there. The world we see online is very spiteful, we all know about people who have had bad stories thrown at them. If we were more generous I might be more happy about the reputation economy. — Andrew Keen

Next, the cranky priest was waiting for Emily when she returned home and demanded to hear her confession. Funnily, she omitted her great sex life and just listed cursing and disobeying her parents and asked for any other sins to be forgiven. The priest was a wise old owl and had a long chat with her afterwards. He had worked himself up into a fury and talked about immoral sex. He warned her that once a girl got a bad name her reputation was gone for ever and she was on a slippery slope to pregnancy and been hidden away in the Magdalene Laundries for the rest of her life.
— Annette J. Dunlea

Ballet-girls have a bad reputation, which is in most cases well deserved. — Henry Mayhew

Debased men, but they all had something in common: They showed a keen regard for virtue, and tried to dress themselves in that costume. Hypocrisy, for all its bad reputation, at least showed a decent respect for goodness. — Orson Scott Card

I hear they're givin' you a bad reputation
just because you've never been denied.
You try to say you've done it all before,
baby, you know that you just get tired.
Yet everybody loves you so much, girl,
I just don't know how you stand the strain.
Oh, I, I'm the one who's here tonight,
and I don't wanna do it all in vain. — Elvis Costello

I suddenly realized I was a writer of wide reputation and most of it bad. — Theodora

I feel like thanking Paul Dacre every time, because the reason they ask me is because they think I've come through the other end with a pretty good reputation. Loads of people get a bad press but have a good reputation. [David] Beckham - think what he went through. [Bill] Clinton, likewise. You just have to be true to yourself. — Alastair Campbell

Any drug can be used successfully, no matter how bad it's reputation, and any drug can be abused, no matter how accepted it is. There are no good or bad rugs; there are only good and bad relationships with drugs. — Andrew Weil

Actually what I'd like is to have a reputation as someone who's been wild and gone straight, but without having to go through the trouble of being bad. — Ben Barnes

The Olympian vice.
In defiance of that philosopher who as true Englishman tried to give any thinking person's laughter a bad reputation ('Laughter is a nasty infirmity of human nature that any thinking person will endeavour to overcome'
Hobbes), I would actually go as far as to rank philosophers according to the level of their laughter
right up to the ones who are capable of golden laughter. And assuming that gods, too, are able to philosophize, as various of my conclusions force me to believe, then I do not doubt when they do so, they know how to laugh in a new and superhuman fashion
and at the expense of everything serious! Gods like to jeer: it seems that even at religious observances they cannot keep from laughing. — Friedrich Nietzsche

German navy had its own tradition of assigning nicknames. One very tall commander was nicknamed Seestiefel, or sea boot. Another had a reputation for smelling bad and thus was nicknamed Hein Schniefelig, or stinky person. A third was said to be "very childish and good-natured" and was commonly called Das Kind, the child. — Erik Larson

I have no idea why hitting people when their backs are turned has such a bad reputation. I've always found it most effective." — Cassandra Gannon

At times when I didn't have records out, the press has really kept me out there. My bad reputation has done wonderful things for me! — Tanya Tucker

An eminent reputation is as dangerous as a bad one. — Tacitus

A bad conscience is easier to cope with than a bad reputation. — Friedrich Nietzsche

If you want someone to help you heal then you don't go to the enemy; you go to the one person that fears a bad reputation if they don't help you. — Shannon L. Alder

I know stereotypes have a bad reputation, people say, "Oh, you shouldn't stereotype people," but I think it's important to recognize that we couldn't function in the world without stereotypes. — W. J. T. Mitchell

After the stock market crash, some New York editors suggested that hearings be held: what had really caused the Depression? They were held in Washington. In retrospect, they make the finest comic reading. The leading industrialists and bankers testified. They hadn't the foggiest notion what had gone bad. You read a transcript of that record today with amazement: that they could be so unaware. This was their business, yet they didn't understand the operation of the economy. The only good witnesses were the college professors, who enjoyed a bad reputation in those years. No professor was supposed to know anything practical about the economy. — Studs Terkel

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

The Doc Holliday of legend is a gambler and gunman who appears out of nowhere in 1881, arriving in Tombstone with a bad reputation and a hooker named Big Nose Kate. — Mary Doria Russell

Colonialism has a bad reputation in the modern context, but Colonial Africa was a far better place for both black and white before the colonists gave up. — Jeff Cooper

Every man, however hopeless his pretensions may appear, has some project by which he hopes to rise to reputation; some art by which he imagines that the attention of the world will be attracted; some quality, good or bad, which discriminates him from the common herd of mortals, and by which others may be persuaded to love, or compelled to fear him. — Samuel Johnson

The only thing
I tell you this straight from the heart
that disgusts me in Salzburg is that one can't have any proper social intercourse with those people
and that music does not have a better reputation ... For I assure you, without travel, at least for people from the arts and sciences, one is a miserable creature! ... A man of mediocre talents always remains mediocre, may he travel or not
but a man of superior talents, which I cannot deny myself to have without being blasphemous, becomes
bad, if he always stays in the same place. If the archbishop would trust me, I would soon make his music famous; that is surely true. — Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Free software is part of a broader phenomenon, which is a shift toward recognizing the value of shared work. Historically, shared stuff had a very bad name. The reputation was that people always abused shared things, and in the physical world, something that is shared and abused becomes worthless. In the digital world, I think we have the inverse effect, where something that is shared can become more valuable than something that is closely held, as long as it is both shared and contributed to by everybody who is sharing in it. — Mark Shuttleworth

You know, I have a very bad reputation. — John Grisham

It is easier to cope with a bad conscience than with a bad reputation. — Friedrich Nietzsche

If you fellows have been hunted from one end of the country to the other as I have been, you'll understand what a bad man's reputation is built on. I've had credit for more killings than I ever dreamt of — Doc Holliday

Has it been found that bodies of men act with more rectitude or greater disinterestedness than individuals? The contrary of this has been inferred by all accurate observers of the conduct of mankind; and the inference is founded upon obvious reasons. Regard to reputation has a less active influence, when the infamy of a bad action is to be divided among a number than when it is to fall singly upon one. — Alexander Hamilton

An alibi is a reason with a bad reputation. — Doug Larson

You're having a hard time and lately you don't feel so good; You're getting a bad reputation in your neighborhood. It's alright, it's alright; Sometimes that's what it takes. You're only human, you're allowed to make your share of mistakes. — Billy Joel

...your name will remain forever in the memory of people. However, it will not be a good memory. Your name will become a household name in all languages, and it will only cause bad associations in humans. — Viktor Shel

Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation. — Henry A. Kissinger

The only things in which we can be said to have any property are our actions. Our thoughts may be bad, yet produce no poison; they may be good, yet produce no fruit. Our riches may be taken away by misfortune, our reputation by malice, our spirits by calamity, our health by disease, our friends by death. But our actions must follow us beyond the grave; with respect to them alone, we cannot say that we shall carry nothing with us when we die, neither that we shall go naked out of the world. — Charles Caleb Colton

If you aren't going to say something directly to someone's face, than don't use online as an opportunity to say it. It is this sense of bravery that people get when they are anonymous that gives the blogosphere a bad reputation. — Mena Grabowski Trott

And because you not always can keep your eyes shut there comes the real trouble
the heart pain
the world pain.
I tell you, my friend, it is not good for you to find you cannot make your dream come true, for the reason that you not strong enough are, or not clever enough ... Ja! ...
And all the time you are such a fine fellow too! Wie? Was? Gott im Himmel! How can that be? Ha! ha! ha!
'The shadow prowling amongst the graves of butterflies laughed boisterously. — Joseph Conrad

Sensing that this stranger was not the dangerous kind, and being the caring, big-hearted dog that he had built his reputation on, Lucky decided that a good dose of tongue licking would put matters right. However, in a twist of bad timing, unluckily for Lucky, he landed his lick just as Felicity rolled over onto her back. So, instead of a friendly lick across the ears as he intended, Lucky's long slobbery, pink tongue made a trail from Felicity's chin to her cherry red lips and up to her forehead.
'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGHHHH! — Kaal Kaczmarek

What is a good man?
Simply one whose life is useful to the world.
And a bad man is simply one whose life is harmful to others.
There are, however, those who are harmful and yet enjoy a good reputation, and who manage to profit by a show of usefulness.
These are the worst of all. — Zhang Zhao

Ads get a bad reputation sometimes because they're not useful. They're not relevant, or slow. — Susan Wojcicki

Meat is not agreeable to the wise: it has a nauseating odor, it causes a bad reputation, it is food for the carnivorous; I say this, Mahamati, it is not to be eaten. — Gautama Buddha

Girls, watch out for the bad guys! ... there are those capable of showering their resources on you just to dance on top of you, and finally destroy your good image and reputation. — Michael Bassey Johnson

The thing about having a bad reputation is that folks will believe just about anything people say about you. — Karin Slaughter

Inference is founded upon obvious reasons. Regard to reputation has a less active influence, when the infamy of a bad action is to be divided upon a number, than when it is to fall singly upon one. A spirit of faction ... will often hurry the persons of whom they were composed into improprieties and excesses for which they would blush in a private capacity. — James Madison

So you're the infamous Shahara ... " He shook his head in amazement that such a petite beauty could inspire so lethal a reputation. "I wonder what Caillen would say if he knew you were here?"
I'm going to cut your balls off, Syn.
Yeah, that would probably be it ...
On the good side and if Syn was lucky. If Dagan was having a bad day ...
He shuddered.
-Syn — Sherrilyn Kenyon

One man lies in his words, and gets a bad reputation; another in his manners, and enjoys a good one. — Henry David Thoreau

I have a bad reputation for being temperamental. — Ted Kotcheff

It always seemed like there was too much in real life I was supposed to be afraid of: drunk drivers, rapists, unwanted pregnancy, HPV, undercooked chicken, toxic shock syndrome, and a bad reputation. — Leila Howland

It's better to not have a reputation than a bad one. — Nic Pizzolatto

A mathematician's reputation rests on the number of bad proofs he has given. — Abram Samoilovitch Besicovitch

Turkish Delight
Turkish delight has had a bad reputation since that man C.S.Lewis - a positive genius in other ways - linked it for ever with one of the most terrifying creations in literature, the White Witch of Narnia, and that naughty, sticky, traitorous Edmund. But with the sensuous pleasure imbued in its melting, gelatinous texture, and, when made in the proper way, delicately perfumed with rose petals, flavoured with oils and dusted with sugar, it reclaims its power as a sweet as seductive as Arabian nights. The fact that it now carries with it a whiff of danger merely adds to its pleasure. It is not, truly, a sweet for children. They simply complain, and get the almonds stuck up their noses, — Jenny Colgan

It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it. — Benjamin Franklin

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

For years, I have been stalked by a bad reputation. Actually, I have been pursued by people who have regarded me as the 'Death and Dying' Lady. They believe that having spent more than three decades in research into death and life after death qualifies me as an expert on the subject. I think they miss the point. — Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Monopolies are bad and deserve their reputation when things are static and the monopolies function as toll collectors ... But I think they're quite positive when they're dynamic and do something new. — Peter Thiel

Too rigid specialization is almost as bad for a historian's mind, and for his ultimate reputation, as too early an indulgence in broad generalization and synthesis. — Samuel E. Morison

I really like Barack Obama. I think that he's working very hard. He's trying to rebuild our reputation throughout the world. The previous administration was a total disaster, a total catastrophe. He was handed a pretty bad deck of cards. And I'm not saying I agree with everything he's doing. He's a champion. I mean, he won against all odds. When he first announced, people were giving him virtually no chance. And he's just done something that's amazing. — Donald Trump

If a man is crossing a river and an empty boat collides with his own skiff, even though he be a bad-tempered man he will not become very angry. But if he sees a man in the boat, he will shout at him to steer clear. If the shout is not heard, he will shout again, and yet again, and begin cursing. And all because there is somebody in the boat. Yet if the boat were empty, he would not be shouting, and not angry. If you can empty your own boat crossing the river of the world, no one will oppose you, no one will seek to harm you ... . Who can free himself from achievement, and from fame, descend and be lost amid the masses of men? He will flow like Tao, unseen, he will go about like Life itself with no name and no home. Simple is he, without distinction. To all appearances he is a fool. His steps leave no trace. He has no power. He achieves nothing, has no reputation. Since he judges no one, no one judges him. Such is the perfect man: His boat is empty. — Osho

Back in the day, a pair of tight jeans was enough to earn a girl a bad reputation. Now slutty has gone Main Street. — Linda Chavez

You have to want it, want it so bad you will never give up, so bad that you are ready to sacrifice time, money, sleep, friendships, even your reputation," he writes. "You will have to adopt a particular lifestyle of ambition, not just for a few weeks or months but for years and years and years. You have to want it so bad that you are not only ready to fail, but you actually want to experience failure: revel in it, learn from it. — David Shenk

Sometimes you can have a reputation for not being relatable and nice because you had a bad day once. That's the thing. You know, I think that's particularly pertinent with Justin [Bieber] because, like, you just forget how young he is. — James Corden

As the malicious disposition of mankind is too well known, and the cruel pleasure which they take in destroying the reputation of others, the use we are to make of this knowledge is, to afford no handle for reproach; for bad as the world is, it seldom falls on anyone who hath not given some slight cause for censure. — Henry Fielding

It amazes me how easy it is for things to change, how easy it is to start off down the same road you always take and wind up somewhere new. Just one false step, one pause, one detour, and you end up with new friends or a bad reputation or a boyfriend or a breakup. It's never occurred to me before; I've never been able to see it. And it makes me feel, weirdly, like maybe all of these different possibilities exist at the same time, like each moment we live has a thousand other moments layered underneath it that look different. — Lauren Oliver

People say I've got a bad reputation. I think I've got the best reputation in the building. — Kanye West

There was no reason to fear the sea, only the living, because, despite their bad reputation, there was no evidence that the dead had ever attacked anyone; if anything, they were naturally timid — Isabel Allende

You did good, you did good again. But then, you did bad, and suddenly you were never any good. — Shon Mehta

Referrals are very powerful. When I refer you, I give a little bit of my reputation away. If you do a good job, my friend that hired you is pleased. But if you do a bad job, that reflects badly on me. People forget that. — Ivan Misner

Tale-bearers are as bad as the tale-makers. — Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Any opening is good enough, if its reputation is bad enough. — Savielly Tartakower

I don't believe in destroying GOOD mysteries or adding to BAD reputations. — John Balance

There's good directors and bad directors. Some of the critics are really conscientious and really try to do what they can popularize the work or to explain the work and so on. And then there's the critics who just wants to make a reputation by attacking. Those are the ones I'm not keen on. — Peter Bogdanovich

Golf is the only game in which a precise knowledge of the rules can earn one a reputation for bad sportsmanship. — Patrick Campbell, 3rd Baron Glenavy

A lot of people would say "well that's not a bad reputation. you sound like a pussy" and I would say yea. but I am passionate about music and being taken seriously about my music, so if you're going to mess with that, we have a problem. — Joan Jett

Reputation is seeming; character is being. Reputation is manufactured; character is grown. Reputation is your photograph; There is a vast difference between character and reputation. Reputation is what men think we are; character is what God knows us to be. Reputation is seeming; character is being. Reputation is the breath of men; character is the inbreathing of the eternal God. One may for a time have a good reputation and a bad character, or the reverse ; but not for long. — Robert Stuart MacArthur

Kingship: to earn a bad reputation by good deeds. — Marcus Aurelius

A prince must be prudent enough to know how to escape the bad reputation of those vices that would lose the state for him, and must protect himself from those that will not lose it for him, if this is possible; but if he cannot, he need not concern himself unduly if he ignores these less serious vices. — Niccolo Machiavelli

Maybe you're not so bad after all.'
He leant across the seat, jabbing his finger in the air. 'If you tell anyone, I'll deny it. I have a reputation to uphold, you know. — Catherine Doyle

I have a bad reputation, I guess. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

If I were a girl, I'd be sucking every cock I could get my mouth on," Will said. "Fuck, I'd take on the whole football team at one time."
Burke ran his hand through Will's hair. "Careful," he said. "You don't want to get a reputation as a bad girl. No one will marry you, then. — Michael Thomas Ford

I've got a reputation for doing a certain type of film: lads' movies that glamorise violence. The more my reputation as a bad boy grows, the more my life moves away from that. — Nick Love

People's reputations are made in the bad times more than the good times. — Jason Calacanis

Turning to Ann Gower, she smiled. "You're a good woman, Ann Gower."
Ann Gower drew back and looked askance at Mary. "Don't you go ruinin' me reputation, Mary Abacus. I be a real bad woman, but a bloody good whore, and you knows it! — Bryce Courtenay

I'll praise Glaucon for the rest of the book as the guy who got it right - the guy who realized that the most important principle for designing an ethical society is to make sure that everyone's reputation is on the line all the time, so that bad behavior will always bring bad consequences. — Jonathan Haidt

You could say that the Hell's Angels have a bad reputation, then you talk to a biker, and he's trying to join it. It just depends upon who you're talking to about reputation. — Anton Newcombe

One tiny stain on a woman's reputation was as bad as a lifetime of debauchery. — Elizabeth Charles

I think you'll make more money in the end with good ethics than bad. Even though there are some people who do very well, like Marc Rich-who plainly has never had any decent ethics, or seldom anyway. But in the end, Warren Buffett has done better than Marc Rich-in money-not just in reputation. — Charlie Munger

Hm," said the Count, rubbing his lips and regarding Miles with cool approval. "Interesting. Well. For your fourth consoling thought, I would point out that in this venue" - a wave of his finger took in Vorbarr Sultana, and by extension Barrayar - "acquiring a reputation as a slick and dangerous man, who would kill without compunction to obtain and protect his own, is not all bad. In fact, you might even find it useful. — Lois McMaster Bujold

Misdeeds of a few players and certain people cannot and should not bring bad name to hundreds of players who participated in the I.P.L. with full honesty. The reputation of the I.P.L. cannot be tarnished by a few greedy individuals. — Rajeev Shukla

I don't want to fail, of course. But even though I didn't know how bad things really were, I still had a lot to think about before I said yes. I had to consider the implications for Pixar, for my family, for my reputation. I decided that I didn't really care, because this is what I want to do. If I try my best and fail, well, I've tried my best. — Steve Jobs

I turned to the novel, an artistic form which had in former days been neglected and had thus acquired a bad reputation, but which during the nineteenth century had developed and elevated itself to the ranks occupied by drama and the ancient epic. — Henrik Pontoppidan