William Shakespeare - Compton Mackenzie - Oliver Cromwell - Anita Loos - Oscar Wilde - William Faulkner - Geoffrey Chaucer - Mark Twain - Charles Dickens - Theodore Roosevelt - Lana Turner - Marlene Dietrich - Kong Fu Zi - King James I - John Locke - William Lyon Phelps - George Bernard Shaw - Fyodor Dostoevsky - Frederick Douglass - Nick Love - Orlando Bloom - Katie Price - Lord Byron - Anthony Trollope - Walter Bagehot - Robert Smith Surtees - Enzo Ferrari - Edmund Burke - James Joyce – The Gentleman Bandit 1981 - Gone With the Wind 1939 -
Mote: You are a gentleman and a gamester, sir.
Armado: I confess both. They are both the varnish of a complete man. William Shakespeare, Love’s Labour’s Lost I ii 42-43
A kinder gentleman treads not the earth. William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice II viii 35, Salerio to Solanio
The Prince of Darkness is a gentleman. William Shakespeare, The History of King Lear III iv 131, Edgar
Women do not find it difficult nowadays to behave like men, but they often find it extremely difficult to behave like gentlemen. Compton Mackenzie, Literature in My Time, 1933
I had rather have a plain, russet-coated Captain, that knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows, than that you call a Gentleman and is nothing else. Oliver Cromwell, letter to Sir William Spring September 1643
So I really think that American gentlemen are the best after all, because kissing your hand may make you feel very very good but a diamond and safire bracelet lasts forever. Anita Loos, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, 1925
A gentlemen is one who never hurts anyone’s feelings unintentionally. Oscar Wilde
A true gentleman is one who is never unintentionally rude. Oscar Wilde
My duty as a gentleman has never interfered with my pleasures in the smallest degree. Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest
A gentleman can live through anything. William Faulkner
He loved chivalrie,
Trouthe and honour, fredom and curteisie. Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales
A gentleman is someone who knows how to play the banjo and doesn’t. Mark Twain
No real gentleman will tell the naked truth in the presence of ladies. Mark Twain
The dog is a gentleman. I hope to go to his heaven, not man’s. Mark Twain, letter to W D Howells 2nd April 1899
Once a gentleman, and always a gentleman. Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit
He is a gentleman of strict conscience, disdainful of all littleness and meanness and ready on the shortest notice to die any death you may please to mention rather than give occasion for the least impeachment of his integrity. He is an honourable, obstinate, truthful, high-spirited, intensely prejudiced, perfectly unreasonable man. Charles Dickens, Bleak House
A gentleman is simply a patient wolf. Lana Turner
I am at heart a gentleman. Marlene Dietrich
A gentleman would be ashamed should his deeds not match his words. Kong Fu Zi
I can make a Lord, but only God can make a gentleman. King James I
Education begins the gentleman, but reading, good company and reflection must finish him. John Locke
The final test of a gentleman is his respect for those who can be of no possible service to him. William Lyon Phelps
A gentleman is one who puts more into the world than he takes out. George Bernard Shaw
A real gentleman, even if he loses everything he owns, must show no emotion. Money must be so far beneath a gentleman that it is hardly worth troubling about. Fyodor Dostoevsky
A gentleman will not insult me, and no man not a gentleman can insult me. Frederick Douglass
A gentleman never talks about his tailor. Nick Cave
Being a gentleman is a worthy goal. Orlando Bloom
All I want is a gentleman. I’m sick to bloody death of bastards. Katie Price
If we must have a tyrant, let him at least be a gentleman who has been bred to the business, and let us fall by the axe and not by the butcher’s cleaver. Lord Byron
And though it is much to be a nobleman, it is more to be a gentleman. Anthony Trollope
No real English gentleman, in his secret soul, was ever sorry for the death of a political economist. Walter Bagehot
The only infallible rule we know is, that the man who is always talking about being a gentleman never is one. Robert Smith Surtees
The era of gentleman racing drivers is ended. Enzo Ferrari
So, to be patriots, as not to forget we are gentlemen. Edmund Burke
— When you kick out for yourself, Stephen – as I daresay you will one of these days – remember, whatever you do, to mix with gentlemen. When I was a young fellow I tell you I enjoyed myself. I mixed with fine decent fellows. James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
He said, ‘Not to worry,’ so gentleman-like. A real gentleman. The Gentleman Bandit 1981 starring Charlie Mattera & Peter Greene & Ed Lauter & Ryan O’Neal & Justine Micelli & Kristina Malota & Todd Newman et al, director Jonathan Kaplan, victim of hold-up for $3000
Scarlett: Sir, you are no gentlemen.
Rhett: And you, miss, are no lady. Gone with the Wind 1939 starring Clark Gable & Vivien Leigh & Leslie Howard & Olivia de Haviland & Thomas Mitchell & Barbara Mitchell & Evelyn Keyes & Ann Rutherford & George Reeves & Fred Crane & Hattie McDaniel & Alicia Rhett et al, director Victor Fleming