DRESS
Addison, Joseph
Had Cicero himself pronounced one of his orations with a blanket about his shoulders, more people would have laughed at his dress than admired his eloquence.
A fine coat is but a livery when the person who wears it discovers no higher sense than that of a footman.
Anonymous
The body is the shell of the soul, and dress the husk of that shell; but the husk often tells what the kernel is.
Two things in my apparel I will chiefly aim at—commodiousness and decency; more than these is not commendable; yet I hate an effeminate spruceness, as much as a fantastic disorder.—A neglected comeliness is the best ornament.
Arnot, Neil
If honor be your clothing, the suit will last a lifetime; but if clothing be your honor, it will soon be worn threadbare.
Barrington, John Shute
Dress has a moral effect upon the conduct of mankind.—Let any gentleman find himself with dirty boots, old surtouts, soiled neckcloth, and a general negligence of dress, and he will, in all probability, find a corresponding disposition in negligence of address.
Bovee, Christian Nestell
The perfection of dress is in the union of three requisites—in its being comfortable, cheap, and tasteful.
Brown, David Paul
A becoming decency of exterior may not be necessary for ourselves, but is agreeable to others; and while it may render a fool more contemptible, it serves to embellish inherent worth.—It is like the polish of the diamond, taking something perhaps from its weight, but adding much to its brilliancy.
Bruyere, Jean de la
Too great carelessness, equally with excess in dress, multiplies the wrinkles of old age, and makes its decay more conspicuous.
Budgell, Eustace
The medium between a fop and a loven is what a man of sense would endeavor to keep; yet one well advises his son to appear, in his habit, rather above than below his fortune; and tells him he will find a handsome suit of clothes always procures some additional respect. My banker ever bows lowest to me when I wear my full-bottomed wig; and writes me "Mr." or "Esq." according as he sees me dressed.
Bulwer-Lytton, Edward George
A gentleman's taste in dress is, upon principle, the avoidance of all things extravagant.—It consists in the quiet simplicity of exquisite neatness; but as the neatness must be a neatness in fashion, employ the best tailor; pay him ready money; and on the whole you will find him the cheapest.
Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope
Next to clothes being fine, they should be well made, and worn easily: for a man is only the less genteel for a fine coat, if, in wearing it, he shows a regard for it, and is not as easy in it as if it were a plain one.
Dress yourself fine, where others are fine, and plain, where others are plain; but take care always that your clothes are well made and fit you, for otherwise they will give you a very awkward sir.
Colton, Caleb C.
It is not every man that can afford to wear a shabby coat; and worldly wisdom dictates the propriety of dressing somewhat beyond one's means, but of living within them, for every one sees how we dress, but none see how we live unless we choose to let them.
Cowper, William
We sacrifice to dress till household joys and comforts cease. Dress drains our cellar dry, and keeps our larder clean; puts out our fires, and introduces hunger, frost, and woe, where peace and hospitality might reign.
Franklin, Benjamin
Eat to please thyself, but dress to please others.
Goldsmith, Oliver
An emperor in his night-cap would not meet with half the respect of an emperor with a crown.
Hale, Sir Matthew
The vanity of loving fine clothes and new fashions, and valuing ourselves by them, is one of the most childish pieces of folly.
Johnson, Samuel
In civilized society external advantages make us more respected.—A man with a good coat on his back meets with a better reception than he who has a bad one.—You may analyze this and say, what is there in it?—But that will avail you nothing, for it is a part of a general system.
Jonson, Ben
Out of clothes, out of countenance; out of countenance, out of wit.
Joubert, Joseph
In clothes clean and fresh there is a kind of youth with which age should surround itself.
Lamb, Charles
In the indications of female poverty there can be no disguise.—No woman dresses below herself from caprice.
Lavater, John Caspar
As you treat your body, so your house, your domestics, your enemies, your friends.—Dress is the table of your contents.
Massinger, Philip
As the index tells the contents of the book, and directs to the particular chapter, even so do the outward habit and garments, in man or woman, give us a taste of the spirit, and point to the internal quality of the soul; and there cannot be a more evident and gross manifestation of poor, degenerate, dung-hilly blood and breeding, than a rude, unpolished, disordered, and slovenly outside.
Prentice, George D.
Those who think that in order to dress well it is necessary to dress extravagantly, or grandly, make a great mistake.—Nothing so well becomes true feminine beauty as simplicity.
Quarles, Francis
Be neither too early in the fashion, nor too long out of it, nor too precisely in it.—What custom hath civilized is become decent; till then, ridiculous.—Where the eye is the jury, thine apparel is the evidence.
Raleigh, Sir Walter
No man is esteemed for gay garments, but by fools and women.
Richter, Jean Paul
The only medicine which does women more good than harm, is dress.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
A loose and easy dress contributes much to give to both sexes those fine proportions of body that are observable in the Grecian statues, and which serve as models to our present artists.
Saville, George, Marquis of Halifax
The plainer the dress with greater luster does beauty appear.—Virtue is the greatest ornament, and good sense the best equipage.
Shakespeare, William
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, but not expressed in fancy; rich, but not gaudy, for the apparel oft proclaims the man.
Shenstone, William
A rich dress adds but little to the beauty of a person; it may possibly create a deference, but that is rather an enemy to love.
Persons are often misled in regard to their choice of dress by attending to the beauty of colors, rather than selecting such colors as may increase their own beauty.
Wesley, John
As to matters of dress, I would recommend one never to be first in the fashion nor the last out of it.
Zimmermann, Johann Georg
Beauty gains little, and homeliness and deformity lose much by gaudy attire.
