Costume Barbati Pazzo Brasov

– Best-selling Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. This quote is taken from his 1987 novel Norwegian Wood.

“Anyone can be heroic from time to time, but a gentleman is something you have to be all the time.”

– Luigi Pirandello, acclaimed Italian dramatist, novelist, poet and writer who won the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature.

“The word of a gentleman is as good as his bond; and sometimes better.”

– Charles Dickens, literary giant, creator of some of the world’s best-known fictional characters, much-beloved English gentleman.

“Courtesy is as much a mark of a gentleman as courage.”

– Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States. Surprisingly soft-edged quote from a man who’s considered one of the hardest to have ever lived.

“A gentleman doesn’t have one set of manners for the house of a poor man and another for the house of someone with an income incomparable to his own.”

– William Maxwell, writer, editor and mentor to many of the most prominent authors of his day, taken from his 1979 novel So Long, See You Tomorrow.

“A gentleman is a man who can disagree without being disagreeable.”

– We don’t really know who came up with this quote. But it’s a compelling one, and we definitely agree with the sentiment behind it.

“A gentleman is one who puts more into the world than he takes out.”

– George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright, critic and polemicist. A massive influence on Western theatre, culture and politics.

“A true gentleman is one who is never unintentionally rude.”

– Oscar Wilde, legendary Irish writer and one of the world’s most popular playwrights ever. Voted greatest British wit in 2007 – with quotes like this, it’s not hard to see why.

“This is the first test of a gentleman: his respect for those who can be of no possible value to him”

– William Lyon Phelps, American author, critic and scholar. This great quote was included in the 1001 Smartest Things Ever Said compilation by Steven D. Price. Deservedly so.