Clothing

Clothing is material used to cover parts of the human body for protection against the environment, for comfort and body modesty, and as personal decoration ("fashion"), often reflecting religious, cultural, and social customs. Clothes are individual articles of clothing (although the term is always used in plural form).

A

 * Che quant' era più ornata, era più brutta.
 * Who seems most hideous when adorned the most.
 * Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516), XX. 116.

B

 * When my modiste first tried it on me I asked if she was dressing me for an opera or an operation.
 * Nora Bayes, commenting on the gasps of friends over an extremely décolleté dress
 * Décolletage is a low neckline on a woman's dress, designed to emphasize but not quite reveal a woman's breasts.
 * Décolletage is a low neckline on a woman's dress, designed to emphasize but not quite reveal a woman's breasts.


 * To a woman, the consciousness of being well-dressed gives a sense of tranquillity which religion fails to bestow.
 * Helen Olcott Bell, reported in Diana J. Dell ed., Memorable Quotations: American Women Writers of the Past (San Jose: Writers Club Press, 2000), p. 36.


 * When in doubt, wear red.
 * Bill Blass quoted in "The 87 Greatest Fashion Quotes of All Time" Harper's Bazaar (February 3, 2022)


 * To treat a poor wretch with a bottle of Burgundy, or fill his snuff-box, is like giving a pair of laced ruffles to a man that has ne'er a shirt on his back.
 * Tom Brown, Laconics; or, New Maxims of State and Conversation (London: Thomas Hodgson, 1701), Part III, § XLVI, p. 100.


 * We dress more or less the same. I mean, I pay more for my clothes, but they look cheap when I put them on.
 * Warren Buffett, (quote at 1:07:23 of 1:19:40)


 * Gars auld claes look amaist as weel's the new.
 * Robert Burns, The Cotter's Saturday Night (1786).


 * His locked, lettered, braw brass collar, Shewed him the gentleman and scholar.
 * Robert Burns, The Twa Dogs (1786).


 * But I do mean to say, I have heard her declare, When at the same moment she had on a dress Which cost five hundred dollars, and not a cent less, And jewelry worth ten times more, I should guess, That she had not a thing in the wide world to wear!
 * William Allen Butler, Nothing to Wear (1857).


 * Around his form his loose long robe was thrown, And wrapt a breast bestowed on heaven alone.
 * Lord Byron, The Corsair (1814), Canto II, Stanza 3.

C

 * Where is our acknowledgement of God if our thoughts are fixed on the glamour of our garments?
 * John Calvin Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life pg. 85.


 * I wanted to give a woman comfortable clothes that would flow with her body. A woman is closest to being naked when she is well-dressed.
 * Coco Chanel, Gaille, Brandon (July 23, 2013). "List of 38 Famous Fashion Quotes and Sayings". BrandonGaille.com. Retrieved November 15, 2013.


 * Dress shabbily and they remember the dress; dress impeccably and they remember the woman.
 * Coco Chanel, Gaille, Brandon (July 23, 2013). "List of 38 Famous Fashion Quotes and Sayings". BrandonGaille.com. Retrieved November 15, 2013.Fashion


 * Do you wish to honor the Body of the Savior? Do not despise it when it is naked. Do not honor it in church with silk vestments while outside it is naked and numb with cold. He who said, “This is my body,” and made it so by his word, is the same that said, “You saw me hungry and you gave me no food. As you did it not to the least of these, you did it not to me.” Honor him then by sharing your property with the poor. For what God needs is not golden chalices but golden souls.
 * John Chrysostom Homilies on the Gospel of Saint Matthew, Homily L


 * Dress drains our cellar dry, And keeps our larder lean; puts out our fires And introduces hunger, frost, and woe, Where peace and hospitality might reign.
 * William Cowper, The Task (1785), Book II, line 614.

D

 * Not caring, so that sumpter-horse the back Be hung with gaudy trappings, with what coarse, Yea, rags most beggarly, they clothe the soul.
 * Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton, The Honest Whore, Part I (1604), Act IV, scene 1, line 71.
 * Quoted by James Russell Lowell in Fireside Travels (Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1864), p. 6.

F

 * Thy clothes are all the soul thou hast.
 * John Fletcher, The Honest Man's Fortune (c. 1613; published 1647), Act V, scene 3, line 170.


 * Beauty when most unclothed is clothed best.
 * Phineas Fletcher, Sicelides: A Piscatory (1631), Act II, scene 4.


 * He that is proud of the rustling of his silks, like a madman, laughs at the ratling of his fetters. For indeed, Clothes ought to be our remembrancers of our lost innocency.
 * Thomas Fuller, The Holy State and the Profane State (1642), Apparel.

G

 * Bhikkhus, this Kassapa is content with any kind of robe, and he speaks in praise of contentment with any kind of robe, and he does not engage in a wrong search, in what is improper, for the sake of a robe. If he does not get a robe he is not agitated, and if he gets one he uses it without being tied to it, uninfatuated with it, not blindly absorbed in it, seeing the danger in it, understanding the escape. ...
 * Gautama Buddha, Samyutta Nikaya, as translated by B. Bodhi (2000), p. 662


 * And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
 * Genesis 3:7 (KJV)


 * They stript Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colours.
 * Genesis, XXXVII. 23.


 * A night-cap deck'd his brows instead of bay, A cap by night,—a stocking all the day.
 * Oliver Goldsmith, description of an Author's Bedchamber, in Citizen of the World, Letter 30. The Author's Club. (1760).


 * It's like sending them ruffles, when wanting a shirt.
 * Oliver Goldsmith, The Haunch of Venison (1776).


 * The nakedness of the indigent world may be clothed from the trimmings of the vain.
 * Oliver Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), Chapter IV.

H

 * Vestis facit virum.
 * English: Clothes make the man.
 * Latin proverb, unidentfied origin
 * Quoted in


 * I like those stylish clothes you wear, and I like the way you brush your hair!
 * Cornell I. Haynes, Jr., "Ride Wit Me" (2000), Country Grammar (27 June 2000), Universal Records


 * It's getting hot in here, so take off all your clothes!
 * Cornell I. Haynes, Jr., "Hot In Herre" (2002), Nellyville (2002), Universal Records


 * I wear my sort of clothes to save me the trouble of deciding which clothes to wear.
 * Katharine Hepburn, Arneson, Krystin; Gustashaw, Megan (2011). "25 of the Best Fashion Quotes of All Time". Glamour. Retrieved January 22, 2013.


 * A sweet disorder in the dresse Kindles in cloathes a wantonnesse.
 * Robert Herrick, "Delight in Disorder", line 1, in Hesperides (1648), reprinted in The Poetical Works of Robert Herrick, ed. (Oxford University Press, 1921), p. 28.


 * A winning wave, (deserving note). In the tempestuous petticote: A carelesse shooe-string, in whose tye I see a wilde civility: Doe more bewitch me than when art Is too precise in every part.
 * Robert Herrick, "Delight in Disorder", line 9, in Hesperides (1648), reprinted in The Poetical Works of Robert Herrick, ed. (Oxford University Press, 1921), p. 28.

I

 * La ropa no da ciencia.
 * Dress does not give knowledge.
 * Tomás de Iriarte, Fábulas literarias (1782), Fábula XXVII: La mona (The Monkey), line 70.

J

 * After all, there is something about a wedding-gown prettier than in any other gown in the world.
 * Douglas Jerrold, "A Wedding-Gown", in The Wit and Opinions of Douglas Jerrold, ed. Blanchard Jerrold (London: W. Kent & Co., 1859), p. 15.


 * Fine clothes are good only as they supply the want of other means of procuring respect.
 * Samuel Johnson, reported in James Boswell, Life of Johnson (1776).


 * Apes are apes though clothed in scarlet.
 * Ben Jonson, The Poetaster (1601), Act V, scene 3.

K

 * The most important thing to remember is that you can wear all the greatest clothes and all the greatest shoes, but you’ve got to have a good spirit on the inside. That’s what’s really going to make you look like you’re ready to rock the world.
 * Alicia Keys, Arneson, Krystin; Gustashaw, Megan (2011). "25 of the Best Fashion Quotes of All Time". Glamour. Retrieved January 22, 2013.

L

 * One is never over- or underdressed with a little black dress.
 * Karl Lagerfeld, Arneson, Krystin; Gustashaw, Megan (2011). "25 of the Best Fashion Quotes of All Time". Glamour. Retrieved January 22, 2013.


 * Sweatpants are a sign of defeat. You lost control of your life so you bought some sweatpants.
 * Karl Lagerfeld, Gaille, Brandon (July 23, 2013). "List of 38 Famous Fashion Quotes and Sayings". BrandonGaille.com. Retrieved November 15, 2013.


 * Over the years I have learned that what is important in a dress is the woman who is wearing it.
 * Yves Saint Laurent, Arneson, Krystin; Gustashaw, Megan (2011). "25 of the Best Fashion Quotes of All Time". Glamour. Retrieved January 22, 2013.


 * Dwellers in huts and in marble halls— From Shepherdess up to Queen— Cared little for bonnets, and less for shawls,  And nothing for crinoline. But now Simplicity's not the rage,  And it's funny to think how cold The dress they wore in the Golden Age  Would seem in the Age of Gold.
 * , "The Two Ages", Stanza 4, in Carols of Cockayne (London: John Camden Hotten, 1869), p. 28.


 * A woman’s dress should be a like a barbed-wire fence: serving its purpose without obstructing the view.”
 * Sophia Loren, Arneson, Krystin; Gustashaw, Megan (2011). "25 of the Best Fashion Quotes of All Time". Glamour. Retrieved January 22, 2013.


 * Let thy attyre bee comely, but not costly.
 * John Lyly, Euphues (Ed. 1579), p. 39.

M

 * “I'm a Catholic girl, so I used to worry I was 'an occasion of sin.' That was the expression if your clothes were too short and someone had lusting thoughts about you—you were 'an occasion of sin.'" "I always worried as a little boy (and still do) that I wasn't 'an occasion of sin.' Will I ever, in my lifetime, be worthy of such a compliment, such a desired reverse state of grace?"
 * Patty McCormack in John Waters, Role Models, (May 25, 2010).


 * In naked beauty more adorned More lovely than Pandora.
 * John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book IV, line 713.


 * It is ever so much easier to be good if your clothes are fashionable.
 * L. M. Montgomery, Gaille, Brandon (July 23, 2013). "List of 38 Famous Fashion Quotes and Sayings". BrandonGaille.com. Retrieved November 15, 2013.


 * If I’m going dancing, then I wear the highest heels with the shortest dress.
 * Kate Moss, Arneson, Krystin; Gustashaw, Megan (2011). "25 of the Best Fashion Quotes of All Time". Glamour. Retrieved January 22, 2013.

P

 * Brevity is the soul of lingerie.
 * Dorothy Parker, caption written for Vogue, 1916. (Cf. Hamlet, Act II, sc. ii: "Brevity is the soul of wit.")
 * Quoted in Alexander Woollcott, While Rome Burns (1934), p. 146.


 * The dress should be the setting and not the gem.
 * Helen Potter in Helen Potter's Impersonations (1891)

Q

 * And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their private parts; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof; that they should draw their khimār over their breasts and not display their beauty except to their husband, their fathers, their husband's fathers, their sons, their husbands' sons, their brothers or their brothers' sons, or their sisters' sons, or their women, or the slaves whom their right hands possess, or male servants free of physical needs, or small children who have no sense of the shame of sex; and that they should not strike their feet in order to draw attention to their hidden ornaments.
 * Quran, 24:31


 * O Prophet! Enjoin your wives, your daughters, and the wives of true believers that they should cast their outer garments over their persons (when abroad): That is most convenient, that they may be distinguished and not be harassed.
 * Quran, 33:59

R

 * You're born naked. The rest is drag.
 * RuPaul quoted in Queer Quotes: On Coming Out and Culture, Love and Lust, Politics and Pride, and Much More, Teresa Theophano, ed. (2004)

S

 * Nobody can tell us Christians how to dress, how to live or how to pray.
 * Michel Sabbah  Quote from a statement made during his visit to Gaza City on possible implementation of Islamic fundamentalist internal policies like mandatory hijab and other measures


 * The soul of this man is his clothes.
 * William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well (1600s), Act II, scene 5, line 45.


 * Thou villain base, Know'st me not by my clothes?
 * William Shakespeare, Cymbeline (1611), Act IV, scene 2, line 80.


 * Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy; For the apparel oft proclaims the man.
 * William Shakespeare, Hamlet (1600–02), Act I, scene 3. Line 70.


 * See where she comes, apparell'd like the spring.
 * William Shakespeare, Pericles, Prince of Tyre (c. 1607-08), Act I, scene 1, line 12.


 * So tedious is this day, As is the night before some festival To an impatient child, that hath new robes, And may not wear them.
 * William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (1597), Act III, scene 2, line 28.


 * With silken coats, and caps, and golden rings, With ruffs, and cuffs, and farthingales, and things; With scarfs, and fans, and double change of bravery, With amber bracelets, beads, and all this knavery.
 * William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew (c. 1593-94), Act IV, scene 3, line 55.


 * He will come to her in yellow stockings, and 'tis a color she abhors; and cross-gartered, a fashion she detests.
 * William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night (c. 1601-02), Act II, scene 5, line 216.


 * The only man I know who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measurements anew each time he sees me. The rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them.
 * George Bernard Shaw Man and Superman (1903)


 * Her cap, far whiter than the driven snow, Emblem right meet of decency does yield.
 * William Shenstone, The Schoolmistress (1737–48), Stanza 6.


 * She wears her clothes as if they were thrown on her with a pitchfork.
 * Jonathan Swift, Polite Conversation (c. 1738), Dialogue I.

T

 * So for thy spirit did devise Its Maker seemly garniture, Of its own essence parcel pure,— From grave simplicities a dress, And reticent demureness, And love encinctured with reserve; Which the woven vesture would subserve. For outward robes in their ostents Should show the soul's habiliments. Therefore I say,—Thou'rt fair even so, But better Fair I use to know.
 * Francis Thompson, "Gilded Gold", line 24, in Poems (Boston: Elkin Mathews & John Lane, 1893), p. 17.


 * Her polish'd limbs, Veil'd in a simple robe, their best attire; Beyond the pomp of dress; for Loveliness Needs not the foreign aid of ornament, But is, when unadorn'd, adorn'd the most.
 * James Thomson, The Seasons, Autumn (1730), line 202.


 * O fair undress, best dress! it checks no vein, But every flowing limb in pleasure drowns, And heightens ease with grace.
 * James Thomson, The Castle of Indolence (1748), Canto I, Stanza 26.


 * She's adorned Amply, that in her husband's eye looks lovely,— The truest mirror that an honest wife Can see her beauty in!
 * John Tobin, The Honeymoon (1770), Act III, scene 4.

Y

 * How his eyes languish! how his thoughts adore That painted coat, which Joseph never wore! He shows, on holidays, a sacred pin. That touch'd the ruff, that touched Queen Bess' chin.
 * Edward Young, Love of Fame (1725–28), Satire IV, line 119.


 * Their feet through faithless leather met the dirt, And oftener chang'd their principles than shirt.
 * Edward Young, To Mr. Pope (1730), Epistle I, line 283.

W

 * Our dress and grooming should be in keeping with godly principles. We would not think of appearing before a prominent person if we were slovenly dressed or our clothes were too casual. How much more concerned we should be when representing Jehovah in the ﬁeld ministry or on the platform! Our grooming and clothing styles can inﬂuence how others view the worship of Jehovah.
 * "Organized to Do Jehovah's Will". Watch Tower Society. 2015. p.134


 * Kleiden machen Leute: nicht Leute von Verstand.
 * English: Clothes make the man, but not the man of sense.
 * German proverb, unidentfied origin
 * Quoted in


 * I enjoy getting dressed as a Barbie doll.
 * Vanna White in: Laura K. McClure (2008), Sexuality and Gender in the Classical World. p. 164


 * Vain trifles as they seem, clothes have, they say, more important offices than merely to keep us warm. They change our view of the world and the world's view of us.
 * Virginia Woolf, Orlando (1928), Chapter 4.


 * Thus, there is much to support the view that it is clothes that wear us and not we them.
 * Virginia Woolf, Orlando (1928), Chapter 4.

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

 * Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 31-33.


 * Old Grimes is dead; that good old man We never shall see more; He used to wear a long black coat,  All button'd down before.
 * , Old Grimes (Providence: Sidney S. Rider & Brother, 1867), Stanza 1.


 * Old Rose is dead, that good old man, We ne'er shall see him more; He used to wear an old blue coat  All buttoned down before.
 * Old Rose. Song referred to in Walton's Compleat Angler, Part I, Chapter II.


 * Old Abram Brown is dead and gone,— You'll never see him more; He used to wear a long brown coat  That buttoned down before.
 * James Halliwell-Phillipps, Nursery Rhymes of England, Tales.


 * John Lee is dead, that good old man,— We ne'er shall see him more: He used to wear an old drab coat  All buttoned down before.
 * To the memory of John Lee, who died May 21, 1823. An inscription in Matherne Churchyard.


 * It is not linen you're wearing out, But human creatures' lives.
 * Thomas Hood, Song of the Shirt.


 * A vest as admir'd Voltiger had on, Which from this island's foes his grandsire won; Whose artful colour pass'd the Tyrian dye, Oblig'd to triumph in this legacy.
 * Edward Howard, The British Princes (London: H. Herringman, 1669), p. 96. See also Boswell, Life of Johnson (1769). European Mag., April, 1792. Steele, in the Spectator. The lines are thought to be a forgery of William Henry Ireland's.
 * A painted vest Prince Voltiger had on, Which from a naked Pict his grandsire won.
 * Attributed to Sir . (Not in Works). Probably a parody of above.


 * They were attempting to put on Raiment from naked bodies won.
 * Matthew Green, The Spleen. Lines called out by Blackmore's parody.


 * Still to be neat, still to be drest, As you were going to a feast, Still to be powder'd, still perfum'd. Lady, it is to be presumed, Though art's hid causes are not found, All is not sweet, all is not sound.
 * Ben Jonson, Epicæne; or, The Silent Woman, Act I, scene 1. (Song). Translation from Bonnefonius. First part an imitation of Petronius, Satyricon.


 * Each Bond-street buck conceits, unhappy elf; He shows his clothes! alas! he shows himself. O that they knew, these overdrest self-lovers, What hides the body oft the mind discovers.
 * John Keats, Epigrams, Clothes.


 * Be plain in dress, and sober in your diet; In short, my deary, kiss me! and be quiet.
 * Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Summary of Lord Littelton's Advice.


 * When this old cap was new 'Tis since two hundred years.
 * Signed with initials M. P. Probably Martin Parker.


 * He was a wight of high renowne, And thosne but of a low degree: Itt's pride that putts the countrye downe, Man, take thine old cloake about thee.
 * Thomas Percy, Religues, Take thy Old Cloake about Thee.


 * My galligaskins, that have long withstood The winter's fury, and encroaching frosts, By time subdued (what will not time subdue!) An horrid chasm disclosed.
 * John Philips, The Splendid Shilling, line 121.


 * May I take off clothes covering shame at the border leaving them hanging on dry trees of arrogance and run by wearing the rays of the sun.
 * Suman Pokhrel, Song of Soul


 * Now old Tredgortha's dead and gone, We ne'er shall see him more; He used to wear an old grey coat,  All buttoned down before.
 * Rupert Simms, at beginning of list of John Tredgortha's works in Bibliotheca Staffordiensis (1894).


 * Attired to please herself: no gems of any kind She wore, nor aught of borrowed gloss in Nature's stead; And, then her long, loose hair flung deftly round her head Fell carelessly behind.
 * Terence, Self-Tormentor, Act II, scene 2. F. W. Ricord's translation.