WHO IS A GENTLEMAN?
A gentleman has a number of qualities. He is well-mannered,
polite, cultured, civilized, respectful,
affectionate, sympathetic, empathetic, courteous, helpful, virtuous,
God-fearing, honest, morally sound, hospitable, kind-hearted, patient listener,
creative, generous, etc.
He helps, not harms; heals, not hurts.
He attracts, not repels. He is grateful, not thankless. He is
humble, not proud. He is dynamic, not inactive. He loves goodness, beauty and
truth.
He is unselfish, greedless and contented. It is not material
wealth which makes him great, but the admirable qualities of head and heart.
He possesses a lot of warmth for others. He is always
friendly, never hostile. He loves even his enemies and salutes his opponents.
He is free from jealousy and envy.
In short, he is gentle from top to toe.
The English scientist Thomas H. Huxley
(1825-95) said: Thoughtfulness for others, generosity, modesty, and
self-respect are the qualities which make a real gentleman or lady, as
distinguished from the veneered article which commonly goes by that name.
The American essayist Ralph Waldo
Emerson (1803-1882 thinks: Whoever is open, loyal, true; honorable himself, and
in his judgment of others; faithful to his word as to law, and faithful alike
to God and man ---such a man is true gentleman.
The British writer Samuel Smiles
(1812-1904), the famous author of Self-Help, Character and Thrift said that the
qualities of a gentleman did not depend upon fashion or manners, but upon moral
worth; not on personal possessions, but on personal qualities.
To conclude, the following words of
the English novelist William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-63), the author of the great
novel Vanity Fair :
To be a gentleman is to be honest, to be gentle, to be
generous, to be brave, to be wise, and possessing all those qualities to
exercise them in the most graceful outward manner.
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G.R.Kanwal
1st MARCH 2025
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