Your reputation is in the hands of others. That's what the reputation is. You can't control that. The only thing you can control is your character.
Interpretation
Your character is what you can control, while your reputation is shaped by others' opinions.
This quote emphasizes the importance of understanding the distinction between character and reputation. While reputation is influenced by how others perceive you, and thus outside of your direct control, your character—defined by your values and actions—is something you can shape and define for yourself. Focusing on building a strong character leads to a positive reputation over time, even if it may not always be immediately recognized by others.
In practice
This quote can be used in a motivational speech about personal integrity.
What is hope but a feeling of optimism, a thought that says things will improve, it won't always be bleak, there's a way to rise above the present circumstances. Hope is an internal awareness that you do not have to suffer forever, and that somehow, somewhere there is a remedy for despair that you will come upon if you can only maintain this expectancy in your heart.
Doing what you love is the cornerstone of having abundance in your life.
Live forgiveness every day rather than just talking about it on Sunday.
Say to Yourself when Someone Else is Criticizing U, 'What U Think of Me is None of My Business'
Conflict is a violation of harmony. If you participate in it, you're part of the problem, not the solution.
My own eight children all march to the beat of their inner music, and in some cases, it is definitely far away from what I hear. I've had to honor their instincts and their choices, and merely guided them out of harm's way until they could be their own guides.
Study the past if you want to define the future.
A man's indebtedness is not virtue; his repayment is. Virtue begins when he dedicates himself actively to the job of gratitude.
The one who cannot restrain their anger will wish undone, what their temper and irritation prompted them to do.
I don't need a cloak to become invisible.
Because he knows you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy. He knows there's a painful side; he knows my thumb smarts and his girlfriend has a bruised breast and the doctor is losing his glasses, but he won't let the pain blot out the humor no more'n he'll let the humor blot out the pain.
Small things start us in new ways of thinking
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