Quotes from Brad Miner

A gentleman, I hope it will become clear, is not simply a man who stands apart. He is a man who stands up for others—sometimes even for his enemies—often when those others have no clue that he is there for them.

Societal civility is the extension and expansion of individual gallantry: it's all about—or ought to be about—balance and restraint

Chivalry was more an ambition than an accomplishment, but—and this is the important thing—it was the common ambition of increasing numbers of men, and it had the effect of elevating and concretizing their civil righteousness. Religion also did this.

Still, taking the good with the bad, chivalry, like Christianity, had a healthy effect upon Western man.

It is remarkable that chivalry, no matter how actual or merely aspirational it was in its own day, appeared when it did—that it appeared at all!

Chivalry combined military, religious, and social concepts into a unified way of life.

It was not enough for knights simply to love and fight well; they needed to sacrifice everything for the highest ideals, such as a Grail quest.

There have always been two senses of the word gentleman: the fine man of high birth and the fine man of good character.

From its earliest days, America has been an incubator of moral ambition.

I acknowledge the efficacy of a kind of peacemaking, especially in the hothouse climate of so many American schools. However, strength and honor more dependably keep the peace than does palaver about psychic posture and moral equivalence.

I do not believe our gentleman Boy Scout should obsess about combat. I do think he ought to be concerned about combat readiness. A man, however hard he works for peace, must always be ready for war.

Life is a martial art.

A compleat gentleman seeks a harmonious union of body and soul, and if his will—his soul—is strong then his body ought to be strong as well.

Hollywood, especially, has tended to portray the warrior as a dysfunctional individual.

I often hear it said that violence is not inevitable, and, therefore, that a warrior attitude and training are unnecessary. I once thought so too, but I grew up, and now the pacifists and I are simply moral strangers.

A true gentleman, a chivalrous man, is just a bit more savage than most people imagine. a man who is not roused to combat evil is no gentleman.