Reputation is favorable notoriety as distinguished from fame, which is permanent approval of great deeds and noble thoughts by the best intelligence of mankind.

Curtis draws a sharp hierarchy among public judgments. “Reputation” is described as a kind of socially convenient credit—essentially positive notoriety—dependent on what people happen to notice and repeat. “Fame,” by contrast, is framed as a durable moral and intellectual verdict: the long-term “approval” of deeds and ideas that withstand time and are ratified by the most discerning minds. The distinction implies that reputation can be manufactured, inflated, or lost with fashion, while fame is earned through genuine excellence and is confirmed by posterity. The quote thus critiques surface-level celebrity and urges attention to lasting achievement and noble thought rather than immediate public buzz.