[MR. SEDGWICK’S disquieting papers have led many of the Atlantic’s friends to suggest that the Gentleman whose demise he so engagingly deplores was rather a rich and fragrant compound of superficial excellencies, technical proficiencies, and social graces than the expositor of dignity in one’s self, consideration for others, and a certain peculiar, not unnoticeable, elevation of character. With these thoughts in mind our readers may care to glance over a few definitions which the past has given of ‘God Almighty’s Gentlemen,’ — THE EDITOR]

Tό ϕρόνιμον ϵυγϵνϵιа ήаι τό συνϵτόν Ψ ϴϵός διδωσιν, ουχ ό πλουτο. (Good sense and understanding, gifts of God,
Not riches, make true gentlehood.)
— EURIPIDES, Alexandrian Fragments

‘Ος âν ϵυ γϵγονως ή, τή ϕύσϵι πρός τ‘άγθά Kάν Aιθιοψ ή, μητϵρ, ϵϵτιν ϵυγϵνής. (Whoe’er by nature’s well-disposed towards good,
Negro though he be, a gentleman is he.)
— MENANDER

Licet superbus ambules pecunia
Fortuna non mutat genus.
(Though high you hold your head with pride of purse,
’T is not the fortune makes the gentleman.)
— HORACE, Epodes

Quis est generosus? Ad virtutem bene a natura compositus. Non facit nobilem atrium plenum fumosis imaginibus. . . . Animus facit nobilem; cui ex quacumque conditione supra fortunam licet surgere.
(Who is a gentleman? One naturally well disposed towards virtue. It is not a gallery filled with dusty portraits that makes a gentleman, but the spirit which may rise above fortune out of any condition of life.)
— SENECA, Epistles

Un gentilhomme qui vit mal est un monstre dans la nature ... la vertu est le premier titre de noblesse.
(A gentleman who leads a bad life is a monster in nature . . . virtue is the first title to nobility.)
— MOLIÈRE, Don Juan

Trauthe, pettee, fredome, and hardynesse

Off thisse virtues iiij who lakkyth iij,
He ought never gentylmane called to be.
— PERCY’S Reliques

Loke who that is most vertuous alway, Prive and apert, and most entendeth ay To do the gentil dedes that he can,
And take him for the gretest gentilman.
— CHAUCER, The Wif of Bathes Tale

A soft, meeke, patient, humble, tranquil spirit;
The first true Gentleman that ever breath’d.
— DEKKER, The Honest Whore

. . . We are gentlemen That neither in our hearts nor outward eyes Envy the great, nor do the low despise.
— SHAKESPEARE, Pericles

Old story of James II, who, petitioned to make an old woman’s son a gentleman, replied: ‘I could make him a nobleman, but God Almighty could not make him a gentleman.’

Bright thoughts, clear Deeds, Constancy, Fidelity, Bounty, and generous Honesty are the Gems of noble Minds: wherein (to derogate from none) the true Heroick English Gentleman hath no Peer.—SIR THOMAS BROWNE, Christian Morals

You know how essential strict honour is to the character of a gentleman, as well as to the quiet of his mind. — LORD CHESTERFIELD, Letters to His God-son

A blackguard is a fellow who does not care whom he offends; a clown is a blockhead who does not know whom he offends; a gentleman is one who understands and shows every mark of deference to the claims of self-love in others, and exacts it in return from them. — HAZLITT,Table Talk

It is almost a definition of a gentleman to say he is one who never inflicts pain.
— NEWMAN

‘What is a gentleman?’ It is to be honest, to be gentle, to be generous, to be brave, to be wise; and possessed of all these qualities to exercise them in the most graceful manner. — THACKERAY