I have just got a letter from Ricketson, urging me to come to New Bedford, which possibly I may do. He says I can wear my old clothes there.—Thoreau to H.G.O. Blake, 26 September 1855
I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes . . . When I ask for a garment of a particular form, my tailoress tells me gravely, "They do not make them so now," not emphasizing the "They" at all, as if she quoted an authority as impersonal as the Fates . . . We worship not the Graces, nor the Parcae, but Fashion. She spins and weaves and cuts with full authority. The head monkey at Paris puts on a traveller's cap, and all the monkeys in America do the same . . .—Walden
It is astonishing how far a merely well-dressed and good-looking man may go without being challenged by any sentinel.—Journal, 3 January 1856
It is generally conceded that a man does not look the worse for a somewhat dilapidated hat.—Journal, 25 December 1859
It is highly important to invent a dress which will enable us to be abroad with impunity in the severest storms. We cannot be said to have fully invented clothing yet.—Journal, 22 April 1856
Ladies are in haste to dress as if it were cold or as if it were warm,—though it may not yet be so,—merely to display a new dress.—Journal, 25 December 1859
Men wear their hats for use; women theirs for ornament.—Journal, 25 December 1859
Most men can keep a horse or keep up a certain fashionable style of living, but few indeed can keep up great expectations.—Journal, 6 May 1858
No man ever stood the lower in my estimation for having a patch in his clothes.—Walden
The chief recommendation of the Kossuth has is that it looks old to start with, and almost as good as new to end with.—Journal, 25 December 1859
All quotation categories  

Donation

$