Home > Topic > The gentlemen
1 " Can you imagine how incredibly quiet it was everywhere, when the gentlemen from this world" — he made a vague circular gesture towards the battalions of meditating Asians behind him — " were hatching and proclaiming their ideas? Anyone who now tries to follow these ideas in order to find the road back to what they were talking about, is faced with obstacles that would have driven an entire tribe of oriental ascetics into the ravine. The world from which they felt it so necessary to retreat would have seemed idyllic to us. We live in a vision of hell, and we have actually got used to it." He looked at his statues and continued, " We have become different people. We still look the same, but we have nothing in common with them any more. We are differently programmed. Anyone who now wants to become like them must acquire a big dose of madness first; otherwise he will no longer be able to bear the life of our world. We are not designed for their kind of life. "
2 " Jonathan Swift made a soul for the gentlemen of this city by hating his neighbor as himself. "
― W.B. Yeats , Selected Poems and Four Plays
3 " Well, next time that Gerry Rees comes in, send him to me,” Lois threatened. “I’ll wait until he’s nice and distracted and then boom, I’ll pull out the brass knuckles!”“You’ll do no such thing!” Maggie warned her. “That’d hurt everyone’s business here! …And you got brass knuckles? Where the hell did you get brass knuckles?”“They been in the family for years. Grandpap had ‘em down on the docks.” Lois admitted.“Lois being the oldest, they went to her…” Margaret added.“Well, just the same, we can’t afford anyone leaving any traceable marks on the gentlemen around here.”--Maggie Pollaski with the Raterink Sisters from The Ragtime Coven "
― Bruce Jenvey ,
4 " He has a very nice face and style, really," said Mrs. Kenwigs." He certainly has," added Miss Petowker. " There's something in his appearance quite--dear, dear, what's the word again?" " What word?" inquired Mr. Lillyvick." Why--dear me, how stupid I am!" replied Miss Petowker, hesitating. " What do you call it when lords break off doorknockers, and beat policemen, and play at coaches with other people's money, and all that sort of thing?" " Aristocratic?" suggested the collector." Ah! Aristocratic," replied Miss Petowker; " something very aristocratic about him, isn't there?" The gentlemen held their peace, and smiled at each other, as who should say, " Well! there's no accounting for tastes;" but the ladies resolved unanimously that Nicholas had an aristocratic air, and nobody caring to dispute the position, it was established triumphantly. "
5 " As a rule there is one thing you can always count on in our job — popularity. There are plenty of disadvantages I grant you, but you are liked and respected. Ring people up any hour of the day or night, butt into their houses uninvited make them answer a string of damn fool questions when they want to do something else — they like it. Always a smile and the best of everything for the gentlemen of the Press. "
― Evelyn Waugh , Scoop
6 " Mr Moss's courtyard is railed in like a cage, lest the gentlemen who are boarding with him should take a fancy to escape from his hospitality. "
― William Makepeace Thackeray
