"Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for 'tis better to be alone than in bad company."- George Washington

                                           What this quote means is you need to be around people who have good qualty. If you're around people with bad quality, then you might as well be alone. He also said if you have esteem/respect for your reputation then you must avoid bad company. An example to this if you hang around bad people, people might think you're bad as well. Hanging around bad people will get you in trouble one day. Most of the time if you are in trouble, these people wont support you. This is why George says it is better to be alone than to be in bad company. If you're in good company, it might actually make your reputation good or better. You have less chance of gettting in trouble around good people. These people will support and help you when you're in some kind of trouble.