The True Gentleman
The True Gentleman is the man whose conduct proceeds from good will and an acute sense of propriety, and whose self-control is equal to all emergencies; who does not make the poor man conscious of his poverty, the obscure man of his obscurity, or any man of his inferiority or deformity; who is himself humbled if necessity compels him to humble another; who does not flatter wealth, cringe before power, or boast of his own possessions or achievements; who speaks with frankness but always with sincerity and sympathy; whose deed follows his word; who thinks of the rights and feelings of others, rather than his own; and who appears well in any company, a man with whom honor is sacred and virtue safe.
- John Walter Wayland
For over 50 years, Brothers and pledges of Sigma Alpha Epsilon have said the True Gentleman – a single sentence first published in the Baltimore Sun and later used in the pledge manual of Sigma Alpha Epsilon – The Phoenix. With the exception of the ritual, it is the words of the True Gentleman that best embody the ideals and standards of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.
