I hold that gentleman to be the best-dressed whose dress no one observes.
—Anthony Trollope (1815–82) English Novelist
A fine woman shows her charms to most advantage when she seems most to conceal them. The finest bosom in nature is not so fine as what imagination forms.
—Unknown
We act the way we dress. Neglected and untidy clothes reflect a neglected and untidy mind.
—Unknown
Too great carelessness, equally with excess in dress, multiplies the wrinkles of old age, and makes its decay more conspicuous.
—Jean de La Bruyere (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
Good clothes open all doors.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
In clothes clean and fresh there is a kind of youth with which age should surround itself.
—Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French Writer, Moralist
As to matters of dress, I would recommend one never to be first in the fashion nor the last out of it.
—John Wesley (1703–91) British Methodist Religious Leader, Preacher, Theologian
An emperor in his night-cap would not meet with half the respect of an emperor with a crown.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
So dress and conduct yourself so that people who have been in your company will not recall what you had on.
—John Newton (1725–1807) English Clergyman, Writer
In the indications of female poverty there can be no disguise.—No woman dresses below herself from caprice.
—Charles Lamb (1775–1834) British Essayist, Poet
Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.
—Epictetus (55–135) Ancient Greek Philosopher
She wears her clothes as if they were thrown on with a pitch folk.
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Irish Satirist
There is much to support the view that it is clothes that wear us and not we them; we may make them take the mould of arm or breast, but they would mould our hearts, our brains, our tongues to their liking.
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English Novelist
How to dress? When the money is going from you wear anything you like. When the money is coming to you, dress your best.
—Common Proverb
The perfection of dress is in the union of three requisites—in its being comfortable, cheap, and tasteful.
—Christian Nestell Bovee (1820–1904) American Writer, Aphorist
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, but not expressed in fancy; rich, but not gaudy, for the apparel oft proclaims the man.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
The difference between a man of sense and a fop is that the fop values himself upon his dress; and the man of sense laughs at it, at the same time he knows he must not neglect it.
—Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) English Statesman, Man of Letters
Brevity is the soul of lingerie.
—Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American Humorist, Journalist
From the cradle to the coffin underwear comes first.
—Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956) German Poet, Playwright, Theater Personality
A fine coat is but a livery when the person who wears it discovers no higher sense than that of a footman.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
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.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) Swiss-born French Philosopher
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.
—Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) English Statesman, Man of Letters
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.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
The beauty of the internal nature cannot be so far concealed by its accidental vesture, but that the spirit of its form shall communicate itself to the very disguise and indicate the shape it hides from the manner in which it is worn. A majestic form and graceful motions will express themselves through the most barbarous and tasteless costume.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Poet, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist
Judge not a man by his clothes, but by his wife’s clothes.
—Thomas Dewar, 1st Baron Dewar (1864–1930) Scottish Businessperson
He was a tubby little chap who looked as if he had been poured into his clothes and had forgotten to say “when!”
—P. G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) British Novelist, Short-story Writer, Playwright
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.
—William Shenstone (1714–63) British Poet, Landscape Gardener
Those who make their dress a principal part of themselves will, in general, become of no more value than their dress.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
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.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
Beauty gains little, and homeliness and deformity lose much by gaudy attire.
—Johann Georg Ritter von Zimmermann (1728–1795) Swiss Philosophical Writer, Naturalist, Physician