Reputation - Reputation As Extension of Ego

Reputation As Extension of Ego

Concern over reputation is sometimes considered a human fault, exaggerated in importance due to the fragile nature of the human ego. William Shakespeare provides the following insights from Othello:

Cassio: Reputation, reputation, reputation! O! I have lost my reputation. I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial. My reputation, Iago, my reputation!

-Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice Act II. Scene III, 242-244.

Iago: As I am an honest man, I thought you had received some bodily wound; there is more offence in that than in reputation. Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving: you have lost no reputation at all, unless you repute yourself such a loser.

-Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice Act II. Scene III, 245-249.

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