To be a gentleman does not depend upon the tailor or the toilet. Good clothes are not good habits. A gentleman is just a gentle-man, — no more, no less; a diamond polished, that was first a diamond in the rough.

Source, in full

Actually by William Croswell Doane's father, George Washington Doane. It is from "The Ends and Objects of Burlington College: An Address", by the Right Rev. George Washington Doane, D.D., LL.D. (Burlington: Edmund Morris, 1848), p. 9. In its original form it reads

Notes from Wikiquote

To be a gentleman, does not depend upon the tailor, or the toilet.[…] Good clothes are not good habits.[…] A gentleman is just a gentle-man; no more, no less: a diamond polished, that was first a diamond in the rough.

More quotes by William Croswell Doane

The success of sainthood is the success attained by struggle and suffering and achieved by faith; a success of honor, of clean hands and pure heart, of service to man and glory to God.

Make us mindful of Thy mercies in the past, and faithful to the memories and traditions of truth and justice, of religion and patriotism, in those that have gone before us.

Enthusiasm is the element of success in everything. It is the light that leads, and the strength that leads men on and up, in the great struggles of scientific pursuit, of professional labor. It robs endurance of difficulty and makes a pleasure of duty.

Address to the Tenth Graduating Class (1881)

[L]ife has no smooth road for any of us. And in the bracing atmosphere of a high aim, the very roughness stimulates the climber to sturdier and steadier steps, till that other legend of the rough places fulfils itself at last; per aspera ad astra; over steep ways to the stars.

Address to the Tenth Graduating Class (1881)

All William Croswell Doane quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: William Croswell Doane (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.