Not necessarily. Just saying, as a gay person in Texas, it doesn’t matter how good my character is. Often I’ve found that it doesn’t matter how good I am, certain people are always going to judge me based on that one thing. And I’m not just talking about the homophobes. Even people who are supportive tend to reduce me to a stereotype, simply because they haven’t had the chance to know many gay people. If I ever gave a thought to my reputation, I’m sure I’d go mad. I’m building a life here by making sure that I’m a good person, and ignoring the opinion of anyone who thinks otherwise.

But I think expecting to have a good reputation just because you have good character is missing the point of that quote. I suspect what he was trying to say was that people are going to think what they’re going to think, and you have very little control over it. What you do have control over are your own actions, and so you should just try to make sure that your actions are good, regardless of what anyone thinks about them.

Striving for good character is striving to control your own actions. Striving for a good reputation is trying to control the thoughts of other people, which is a pointless, time-wasting endeavor. Even if you’re trying to do it by having good character. ;)

>:o