C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917. Apparel
Let thy attyre bee comely, but not costly.Lyly.
1 Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not express’d in fancy; rich, not gaudy; For the apparel oft proclaims the man.
Shakespeare.
2 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.
3 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.
Cowper.
4 Through tatter’d clothes small vices do appear; Robes and furr’d gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold, And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks; Arm it in rags, a pigmy’s straw doth pierce it.
Shakespeare.
5 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.
Thomson.
6 He that is proud of the rustling of his silks, like a madman, laughs at the rattling of his fetters. For indeed, Clothes ought to be our remembrancers of our lost innocency.Fuller.
7 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 fairer even so, But better Fair I use to know.
Francis Thompson.
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