Gentleman Quotes - Page 22

• Philanthropist, n.: A rich (and usually bald) old gentleman who has trained himself to grin while his conscience is picking his pocket.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Pockets, Philanthropy, Rich

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.181, University of Georgia Press

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• I have not permitted myself, gentlemen, to conclude that I am the best man in the country; but I am reminded, in this connection, of a story of an old Dutch farmer, who remarked to a companion once that "it was not best to swap horses when crossing streams."

  Abraham Lincoln

  Country, Horse, Men

  Reply to Delegation from National Union League, 9 June 1864.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• My first American ancestor, gentlemen, was an Indian-an early Indian. Your ancestors skinned him alive, and I am an orphan. All those Salem witches were ancestors of mine. Your people made it tropical for them. . . . The first slave brought into New England out of Africa was an ancestor of mine-for I am a mixed breed, an infinitely shaded and exquisite Mongrel.

  Mark Twain

  People, Alive, Firsts

  6 Copy quote

• A lot of people are curious why I'm a lesbian - ladies and gentlemen, the cast of Entourage.

  Jane Lynch

  Gay, People, Entourage

  "Jane Lynch Lesbian Joke About Entourage 'Not Fair,' Says Kevin Dillon". Jane Lynch's speech as host at the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards, www.eonline.com. September 18, 2011.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• A Gentleman is a man who will pay his gambling debts even when he knows he has been cheated.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Men, Gambling, Debt

  18 Copy quote

• To fear death, gentlemen, is no other than to think oneself wise when one is not, to think one knows what one does not know.

  Socrates

  Wise, Apology, Thinking

  9 Copy quote

• It is the mark of a gentleman to be moderate in the use of wine.

  Athenaeus

  Wine, Use, Mark

  6 Copy quote

• Ugliness is an illusion, gentlemen. Like beauty. Like color. All depends on the light. The only reality is action.

  Karen Traviss

  Reality, Light, Color

  Karen Traviss (2011). “True Colors: Star Wars Legends (Republic Commando)”, p.38, Del Rey

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• For years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?

  Anne Graham Lotz

  Life, God, Christian

  "Ben Stein, God, and Me". Interview with Norman Horowitz, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 15, 2006.

  126 Copy quote

  Show source

• America was born a Christian nation. America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness, which are derived from Holy Scripture. Ladies and gentlemen, I have a very simple thing to ask of you. I ask of every man and woman in this audience that, from this night on, they will realize that part of the destiny of America lies in their daily perusal of this great Book of revelations. (The Bible) That if they would see America free and pure they will make their own spirits free and pure by the baptism of Holy Scripture.

  Woodrow Wilson

  Christian, Lying, Book

  Woodrow Wilson, Ray Stannard Baker, Howard Seavoy Leach (1925). “The Public Papers of Woodrow Wilson: College and state; educational literary and political papers (1875-1913)”

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• This knight was indeed a valiant gentleman; but not a little given to romance, when he spake of himself.

  John Evelyn

  Knights, Romance, Littles

  E. S. de Beer (ed.) 'The Diary of John Evelyn' (1955) vol. 3, p. 40 (6 September 1651)

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Disagreeing with the fervent patriotism of the Confederates: "I think it's hard winning a war with words, gentlemen. . . . I'm saying very plainly that the Yankees are better equipped than we. . . . All we've got is cotton and slaves, and arrogance." "I seem to be spoiling everybody's brandy and cigars and dreams of victory."

  Clark Gable

  Dream, War, Winning

  22 Copy quote

• In a word, the free trade system hastens the social revolution. It is in this revolutionary sense alone, gentlemen, that I vote in favor of free trade.

  Karl Marx

  Historical, Revolution, Favors

  Karl Marx, David McLellan (2000). “Karl Marx: Selected Writings”, p.296, Oxford University Press, USA

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• And then he danced,-all foreigners excel the serious Angels in the eloquence of pantomime;-he danced, I say, right well, with emphasis, and a'so with good sense-a thing in footing indispensable: he danced without theatrical pretence, not like a ballet-master in the van of his drill'd nymphs, but like a gentleman.

  Lord Byron

  Angel, Nymphs, Ballet

  8 Copy quote

• Well, let me tell you, gentlemen, the games of the devil are not restricted to those confined to hell. Others can play them.

  Robert Ludlum

  Games, Play, Devil

  Robert Ludlum (2013). “The Jason Bourne Series 3-Book Bundle: The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum”, p.1878, Bantam

  25 Copy quote

  Show source

• Capitalism is a development by refinement from feudalism, just as feudalism is development by refinement from slavery . Capitalism is but the gentlemen's method of slavery.

  Kwame Nkrumah

  Development, Slavery, Refinement

  816 Copy quote

• When I was a child and they burned me out of my home, I was frightened and I ran away. Eventually I ran far away. It was to a place called France. Many of you have been there, and many have not. But I must tell you, ladies and gentlemen, in that country I never feared. It was like a fairyland place.

  Josephine Baker

  Country, Children, Home

  35 Copy quote

• I proceed, gentlemen, to call your attention to the present state of insane persons confined within the commonwealth; in cages, closets, cellars, stalls, pens; chained, naked, beaten with rods, and lashed into obedience.

  Dorothea Dix

  Insane Person, Cages, Naked

  Dorothea Lynde Dix (1843). “Memorial: To the Legislature of Massachusetts [protesting Against the Confinement of Insane Persons and Idiots in Almshouses and Prisons]”, p.4

  126 Copy quote

  Show source

• REPARTEE, n. Prudent insult in retort. Practiced by gentlemen with a constitutional aversion to violence, but a strong disposition to offend. In a war of words, the tactics of the North American Indian.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Strong, War, Violence

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.197, University of Georgia Press

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• If your kitchen table is like mine, you sit there at night before you put the kids to bed and you talk about what you need. You talk about how much you are worried about being able to pay the bills. Ladies and gentlemen, that is not a worry John McCain has to worry about. It's a pretty hard experience. He'll have to figure out which of the seven kitchen tables to sit at.

  Joe Biden

  Kids, Night, Worry

  8 Copy quote

• To my mind, nothing is as important as good writing, because in literature, the walls between people and cultures are broken down, and the things that plague us most—suspicion and fear of the other, and the tendency to see whole groups of people as objects, as monoliths of one cultural stereotype or another—are defeated. This work is not done as a job, ladies and gentlemen, it is done out of love for the art and the artists who brought it forth, and who still bring it forth to us, down the years and across ignorance and chaos and borderlines.

  Richard Bausch

  Art, Jobs, Wall

  4 Copy quote

• In place of a world, there is a city, a point, in which the whole life of broad regions is collecting while the rest dries up. In place of a type-true people, born of and grown on the soil, there is a new sort of nomad, cohering unstably in fluid masses, the parasitical city dweller, traditionless, utterly matter-of-fact, religionless, clever, unfruitful, deeply contemptuous of the countryman and especially that highest form of countryman, the country gentleman.

  Oswald Spengler

  Country, Clever, Cities

  Oswald Spengler (1991). “The Decline of the West”, p.25, Oxford University Press, USA

  35 Copy quote

  Show source

• On matters beyond his ken a gentleman speaks with caution. If names are not right, words are misused. When words are misused, affairs go wrong. When affairs go wrong, courtesy and music droop, law and justice fail. And when law and justice fail them, a people can move neither hand nor foot. So a gentleman must be ready to put names in speech, to put words into deeds. A gentleman is nowise careless of words.

  Confucius

  Moving, Hands, Law

  10 Copy quote

• Nominee. A modest gentleman shrinking from the distinction of private life and diligently seeking the honorable obscurity of public office.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Life, Office, Obscurity

  Ambrose Bierce (2012). “The Devil's Dictionary”, p.85, Courier Corporation

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• People talk about random acts of kindness, and that goes back to the measure of being gentlemanly again. It's about having consideration for others, and not expecting anything back. That's the difference.

  Simon Baker

  Kindness, Differences, People

  57 Copy quote