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About this quote

What does it mean?
Do not protect your reputation; instead, let your integrity protect you.
In plain terms
Let your dignity protect you, not the other way around.
What can you take from it?
Let integrity protect your reputation.

Where it applies

  • ethics
  • leadership
  • personal conduct

Putting it to work

  • act with integrity
  • avoid vanity
  • be honest

Questions to consider

  • What protects your character?
  • How do you guard dignity?

Another view

Sometimes reputation management is necessary for survival.

More from Ralph Waldo Emerson

  1. It is an amiable illusion, which the shape of our planet prompts, that every man is at the top of the world.

    Permalink to quote #293
  2. My life is not an apology, but a life. It is for itself and not for a spectacle.

    Permalink to quote #295
  3. If I have lost confidence in myself, I have the universe against me.

    Permalink to quote #292

Related quotes

  1. Character is what God and the angels know of us; reputation is what men and women think of us.

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  2. Honor has not to be won; it must only not be lost.

    Arthur SchopenhauerArthur Schopenhauer quote #22
  3. A man with no enemies is a man with no character.

    Paul NewmanPaul Newman quote #28