        
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, Virginia, 1899  
Since march 9th, 1856, more than two hundred and fifty tousand men have recited John Walter Wayland's famous words as members of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity. SAE is the nation's largest social fraternity; among its many esteemed members are Troy Aikman, Mack Brown, Sam Elliot, Fred Savage, Phil Jackson, Nick Lachey, Pete Carroll, Gen. Richard Meyers, President William McKinley, Bo Schembechler, David Spade, William Faulkner and WVU's own Don Nehlen.
The True Gentleman is the creed of Sigma Alpha Epsilon which was first adopted by the fraternity sometime in the 1930's. It was discovered by Judge Walter B. Jones, who first came upon it in an Alabama Baptist quarterly of which he was the editor. He sent a copy of it to John O. Moseley, the leader of the annual Leadership Schools, who was quite taken with it. Moseley began using it at the Schools. For many years, the author was thought to be unkonwn until the 1970's when the editor of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon pledge manual, The Phoenix, Joseph Walt, discovered that the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis also used it in a manual. The author was listed there as John Walter Wayland. "The True Gentleman" had actually first appeared in The Baltimore Sun as part of a competition for the best definition of a true gentleman with Wayland's submission being crowned the winner.
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