C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917.
Lady
To be gentle is the test of a lady.
It is easier to make a lady of a peasant-girl than a peasant-girl of a lady.
It is good manners, not rank, wealth, or beauty, that constitute the real lady.
It is true politeness, gentleness, and love for humanity, that constitute a lady.
If the inner life of our fashionable women were known, how few would deserve the title of lady!
There are many true ladies, and they differ somewhat from society generally. So does a true gentleman, on the same principle of refinement and nobility of character.
A fine lady; by which term I wish to express the result of that perfect education in taste and manner, down to every gesture, which heaven forbid that I, professing to be a poet, should undervalue. It is beautiful, and therefore I welcome it in the name of the author of all beauty. I value it so highly that I would fain see it extend not merely from Belgravia to the tradesman’s villa, but thence, as I believe it one day will, to the laborer’s hovel and the needlewoman’s garret.