It wasn't murder, it was a selfless, public-spirited civic gesture that in a more civilised society would have earned Simon some initials after his name, as opposed to a life sentence.

Ross made the apparently selfless gesture of saying that, as the second-string guitarist, he should be the one to lute the bullet'.

The press hailed Abel's decision as a 'selfless gesture, worthy of a man who had been a refugee of the First World War.

That selfless, forward-thinking gesture resulted in the great Global Community we enjoy today, a world divided into ten equal regions, each governed by a subpotentate.

Each would dearly have liked a smoke but out of politeness each waited upon his fellow to make that first selfless gesture of the day.

Mr. Ito's resignation, however, was interpreted as a selfless and principled gesture that made him popular with the public.

He is a determined loner and a forthright mercenary until at last his underlying nobility is revealed by a selfless gesture.

It was a selfless gesture, but on Feb. 14 in Hakuba, those roles could be reversed.

These are hardly selfless gestures.

He dies, in fact, in a selfless gesture.