Reputation

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Apr 6, 1911

A good name is better than great riches, but a good character is far more important than a good name. Character makes reputation; reputation never can make character. Reputation is what people think you are; character is what God knows you are. A pure, strong, upright, godly character is a power, a mighty force in the world; but reputation may be like the noise of sounding brass or of tinkling cymbals.

Let all the machinery in the clock be right, and the hands will give little trouble; but if the machinery is wrong, nothing that we can do will make the hands go right. So if the inner life is right, the outward reputation will in due time take its shade from it; but if men care for the outward reputation, and neglect the inward life, the result will only be emptiness and hypocrisy.

“Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts; and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.”—Selected.