“A gentleman is someone who can play the accordion, but doesn't.”
Tom Waits (1949) American singer-songwriter and actor
“A gentleman is someone who knows how to play the banjo and doesn't.”
Last update March 31, 2026. History
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Mark Twain637
American author and humorist 1835–1910Related quotes
“An Irish gentleman is someone who can play the bagpipes but won’t.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet
First ascribed to Wilde by The Boston Globe in 1991. The joke probably appeared for the first time in 1917, when The Atchison Weekly Globe attributed it to a local man named Frank Fiest. <br class="br">Misattributed <br class="br">Source: My Idea of a Gentleman Is He Who Can Play a Cornet and Won’t, Quote Investigator, 14 August 2021 https://quoteinvestigator.com/2019/04/21/cornet/,
“Sometimes a man doesn't know how badly he's hurt until someone else probes the wound.”
Robin Hobb book Assassin's Quest
Source: Assassin's Quest
“An old definition of a gentleman: someone who is never rude except on purpose.”
Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist
2000s, 2001, Letters to a Young Contrarian (2001)
“A gentleman is someone who does not what he wants to do, but what he should do.”
Haruki Murakami book Norwegian Wood
Source: Norwegian Wood
