A good name is fitly compared to a precious ointment, and when we are praised with skill and decency, it is indeed the most agreeable perfume: but if too strongly admitted into a brain of a less vigorous and happy texture, it will, like too strong and odour, overcome the senses, and prove pernicious to those nerves it was intended to refresh.
Richard Steele (1672-1729) Anglo-Irish writer, journalist, playwright, politician
Essay (1711-12-03), The Spectator, No. 238
(Source)
The comparison is in the Bible, Ecclesiastes 7:1.
Quotations about:
good name
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A good karakter is allwuss gained bi inches, but iz often lost in one chunk.
[A good character is always gained by inches, but is often lost in one chunk.]
Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax, 1875-04 (1875 ed.)
(Source)
Honor is like an island, rugged and without a beach; once we have left it, we can never return.
[L’honneur est comme une ile escarpée et sans bords ;
On n’y peut plus rentrer dès qu’on en est dehors.]Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux (1636-1711) French poet and critic
Satires, Satire 10, l. 167 (1716)
