Teach me elegance and sweetness of manners, Ahura Mazda

Man is mirrored in his manners and his worth is valued according to his manners. A well-bred man is a man of good and gentle manners. It is not birth or rank or wealth that makes a lady or a gentleman. A peasant can be a gentleman, as a peasant-woman can be a lady. Nobility of character dwells equally well in a villa or a chateau, as in a cottage or a garret. Talents and valor and wealth rise in worth with good manners and good manners from character. This world were paradise, if all who inhabit it were genteel men and genteel women.

Let me not be vulgar and vain, proud and rude. Let me polish the roughness and rudeness of my manners. Let me be courteous in speech and with life sweetened by good manners, let me convey cheer and pleasure and happiness to all whom I meet.

Let me be affable and amiable of disposition. Let my manners be charming and pleasing and spontaneous and simple. Let me bear like a gentleman. Let me behave with propriety of manners and with deference to the feelings of others.

Help me, to maintain unblemished my honor, spotless my reputation, and unscathed the glorious name of my dear community.

Zarathushtra, at the gray dawn of history, was the first gentleman. A gentleman is world's good citizen, thy good man, and a good Zoroastrian, Ahura Mazda.

This page was last updated on Friday, February 11, 2005.