"It is easier to cope with a bad conscience than with a bad reputation."

I use the quote for one of my mail signatures and I thought it meant, simply, that it's easier for you to forgive yourself than it is for the world to get over what you've done. In other words, once you've lied, it will always be difficult for anyone to ever believe you again, to paraphrase another of Nietzsche's quotes. But the reactions I've been getting to my mail sig have been pretty negative! One friend said to me "Are you saying that bad deeds don't matter, as long as you don't get caught?" and another simply said "I don't like it!".

So what's your take on the quote? BTW, I don't know much about Nietzsche which I'm assuming would help me to understand this better.

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