Quotes about dressing
page 9

“The home office hates vigilantes in Lycra fancy-dress outfits almost as much as they hate lawbreakers. You see, superheroes don’t follow the rules of evidence. They take procedural shortcuts, assault criminals, mess up crime scenes, and generally make it almost impossible to secure a conviction. Not to mention committing a basketload of offenses in their own right: aggravated trespass, assault, violating controlled airspace and flying without a license, breaking and entering, criminal damage...”

Charles Stross The Laundry Files

Source: The Laundry Files, The Annihilation Score (2015), Chapter 4, “Briefings” (p. 63)

Home, Making love, Hate, Flying

“There were the Chârvâkas, who preached horrible things, the most rank, undisguised materialism, such as in the nineteenth century they dare not openly preach. These Charvakas were allowed to preach from temple to temple, and city to city, that religion was all nonsense, that it was priestcraft, that the Vedas were the words and writings of fools, rogues, and demons, and that there was neither God nor an eternal soul. If there was a soul, why did it not come back after death drawn by the love of wife and child. Their idea was that if there was a soul it must still love after death, and want good things to eat and nice dress. Yet no one hurt these Charvakas.”

Charvaka An unorthodox school of Hindu philosophy

Swami Vivekananda as recorded in the complete works of Swami Vivekananda https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_2/Jnana-Yoga/Maya_and_the_Evolution_of_the_Conception_of_God.

Hurt, God, Soul, Religion

“If I had power and could legislate, I should certainly stop all proselytising. It is the cause of much avoidable conflict between classes and unnecessary heart-burning among the missionaries… In Hindu households the advent of a missionary has meant the disruption of the family coming in the wake of change of dress, manners, language, food and drink. … The other day a missionary descended on a famine area with money in his pocket, distributed it among the famine-stricken, converted them to his fold, took charge of their temple and demolished it. This is outrageous. The temple could not belong to the converted, and it could not belong to the Christian missionary. But this friend goes and gets it demolished at the hands of the very men who only a little while ago believed that God was there.”

Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) pre-eminent leader of Indian nationalism during British-ruled India

Mahatma Gandhi The Collected Works Volume 61, Ahmedabad, 1975, p, 46-57. As quoted in Goel, S.R. History of Hindu-Christian Encounters (1996)
Posthumous publications (1950s and later)

Money, Family, God, Drink

“During my travels, I find a general belief that to turn a Christian is to turn European; to become self-willed, and give up self-restraint, use only foreign cloth, dress oneself in European style and start taking meat and brandy. But I think the fact is, if a person discards his country, his customs and his old connections and manners when he changes his religion, he becomes all the more unfit to gain a knowledge of God. For, a change of religion means really a conversion of the heart. When there is a real conversion, a man’s heart grows. But in this country one finds that conversion brings about deep disdain for one’s old religion and its followers, i. e., one’s old friends and relatives. The next change that takes place is that of dress and manners and behaviour. All that does great harm to the country.”

Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) pre-eminent leader of Indian nationalism during British-ruled India

Mahatma Gandhi in Mahadev Desai, Day-to-Day with Gandhi,Volume 7, Varanasi, 1969, as quoted in Goel, S.R. History of Hindu-Christian Encounters (1996)
Posthumous publications (1950s and later)

God, Clothes, Religion, Country

“On Tuesday I went around San Francisco dressed in overalls designating large parts of it as legal graffiti areas.”

Banksy pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, and painter

Existencilism (2002)

Parting

“Why care about social formalities, modes of dress, niceties of speech, qualities of restraint? Not simply because manners make the man, although they do, but because manners also shape political cultures.”

Bret Stephens (1973) far-right American

"Yes, the President Bears Blame for the Terror From the Right" http://archive.is/WIjmV#selection-537.45-537.250 (1 November 2018), The New York Times

Making love

“At the end of the day and at the beginning of the day, I am a man who dresses up like a lady who is from outer space. Not everyone is going to get that. Not everyone is going to be on board with that. And not everyone is going to be able to swallow that.”

Alaska Thunderfuck 5000 (1985) American Drag queen

Advocate interview (2015)

“The presidents of India carried their own cultural dress code within and without India. They remained among the common people. When he became the president, he marched from his farm to Delhi to occupy Rashtrapati Bhavan.”

Neelam Sanjiva Reddy (1913–1996) sixth President of India

R.K Pruthi in: Prime Ministers Of India History Essay http://www.ukessays.com/essays/history/the-prime-ministers-of-india-history-essay.phpThe, ukessays.com, 2005

People

“Elegantly dressed he was always courteous but firm in what he believed to be just and fair and presented himself as a Moghul, as it were, which quality he possibly inherited from his maternal side.”

Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed (1905–1977) the fifth President of India and a politician

Source: Great Muslims of undivided India, P.101

Maternity

“It is quite a revolution, dear Christian. Your dresses have such a new look. They are quite wonderful you know.”

Christian Dior (1905–1957) French fashion designer

Carmel Snow in Harper’s Bazar office, in p. 135
This news and the show was hailed by the American and other foreign press as French press was on strike.
Christian Dior: The Man who Made the World Look New

“Indigenous musicians in our backyard, who are also world-famous and as successful –people like hariprasad Chaurasia or Bhimsen Joshi. Why? Because they remain as desi as desi ghee. They dress Indian, talk Indian, walk Indian, eat Indian (paan, horror of horrors!), think Indian, feel Indian.”

Hariprasad Chaurasia (1938) Indian bansuri player

On the overzealous attention given in India to Zubin Mehta who was just born a :parsee in India but has lived overseas most of his life and comes to India occasionally. Quoted in [Shobhaa De, Superstar India: From Incredible To Unstoppable, http://books.google.com/books?id=8yX2H_8UmfUC&pg=PT41, 2 April 2009, Penguin Books Limited, 978-0-14-192374-1, 41–]

Success, People, Thinking, World

“Rekha, a photogenic girl with seductive eyes, languished in insubstantial roles. The audience was floored when there was a swift change in her screen personality, as well as her style of acting. She paid painstaking attention to her make-up and acting technique. She improved her dress sense and recorded albums to promote physical fitness. What Jane Fonda did for aerobics in America, Rekha did for yoga in India.”

Rekha (1954) Indian film actress

Quoted in Love, anger, the works!, 7 December 2013, Filmfare http://downloads.movies.indiatimes.com/site/june2002/flashback.html,

Girl, Personality, Sense, Making love

“This dress is something I would want to be buried in!”

Keariene Muizz (1977) American artist

On wanting to be buried in the painting she converted into a dress.
The Today Show (2012)

“Then came the dress, the tapes, and the Federal grand jury. The attempt to obstruct and cover-up grew, expanded, and developed a life of its own. It overpowered the underlying offense itself. A new strategy was required, fast: The President was advised: `Admit the sex, but never the lies.”

Kay Bailey Hutchison (1943) American politician

Shift the blame; change the subject. Blame it on the plaintiff in the Arkansas case. Blame it on her lawyers. Blame it on the Independent Counsel. Blame it on partisanship. Blame it on the majority members of the House Judiciary Committee. Blame it on the process. <br class="br"> Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's closed-door impeachment statement, CNN.com, CNN, February 12, 1999, 2007-07-21 http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/02/12/senate.statements/hutchison.html,

Sex, Life

“John is naturally somebody who attracts people to follow him, You know how you can dress any way you want, but if you don’t have natural style, it doesn’t matter? John has that leadership naturally.”

John Terry (1980) English association football player

Marcel Desailly, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/sports/soccer/john-terry-chelseas-dark-knight.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Way, People, Nature

“Steven Gerrard was awesome today. We were just laughing in the dressing room that at one stage we thought he was heading his own crosses in.”

Steven Gerrard (1980) English footballer

Gareth Southgate on Gerrard after a Premiership game between Middlesbrough and Liverpool in 2005. Peter Gill. "Lordy, It's The Quotes Of The Week", Football365.com, August 16, 2005 (article offline; cache http://web.archive.org/web/20051028201926/http://www.football365.com/features/interviews/story_159958.shtml).

“You’d be alone in the kitchen and twilight would be dwindling, and you could hear the far off cries of the other children playing nearby. You’d be alone in the kitchen because it was your special treat time, where the jelly would come out just for you, and your mother would appear at your side just as a vision of Laura Ashley print dress, smelling of magnolias and biscuits and put the jelly in front of you, and you would pull your chair in. Then the old fashioned bar of ice cream would come down, the one that had to be cut with a breadknife before the two sides were flanked with wafers. You would lift your little spoon up excitedly and winkle out that first divet of black jelly… AND THEN THE CAGE COMES DOWN! The cage with the Japanese fighting spiders inside, your mother strikes a match off her forearm and tells you to dance in the front room for money… You, you never forget that shit, I mean it never goes away.”

Dylan Moran (1971) Irish actor and comedian

Like, Totally (2006)

Money, Time, Forgetting, Children

“In the intermission, between group one and group two, you go to your dressing-room and change every stitch you have on you: underwear, shirt, tie, socks, pants and tails. Your other clothes are soaking wet.”

George Antheil (1900–1959) American avant-garde composer, pianist, author and inventor

Clothes, Change

“The sweat—great slithering streams of it—pours down you. It runs down your legs, down the leg that is pedalling the sostenuto pedal, down the other leg. It oozes out all over your chest, flows down the binding around your middle where your full-dress pants soak it up. It flows everywhere, down your arms, down your hands.”

George Antheil (1900–1959) American avant-garde composer, pianist, author and inventor

“My head-dress was a bugle-band like the border to my gown, and a flower of Mrs Tilson’s. I depended upon hearing something of the evening from Mr. W. K., and am very well satisfied with his notice of me — "A pleasing looking young woman"”

Jane Austen (1775–1817) English novelist

that must do; one cannot pretend to anything better now; thankful to have it continued a few years longer!
Letter (1811-04-30) [Letters of Jane Austen -- Brabourne Edition]
Letters

Flowers, Dependency

“One feature of our own society that seems decidedly anomalous is the matter of sexual advertisement. As we have seen, it is strongly to be expected on evolutionary grounds that, where the sexes differ, it should be the males that advertise and the females that are drab. Modern western man is undoubtedly exceptional in this respect. It is of course true that some men dress flamboyantly and some women dress drably but, on average, there can be no doubt that in our society the equivalent of the peacock’s tail is exhibited by the female, not by the male. Women paint their faces and glue on false eyelashes. Apart from special cases, like actors, men do not.”

Richard Dawkins book The Selfish Gene

Source: The Selfish Gene (1976, 1989), Ch. 9. Battle of the Sexes

Painting, Sex, Falseness, Women

“O, wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us,
An' foolish notion.
What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us
An' ev'n Devotion”

Robert Burns To a Louse

To a Louse, st. 8 (1786) http://www.poetry-online.org/burns_to_a_louse.htm

“It is a cliche that the gun is a penis-symbol as well as a weapon. Gun organizations are conventionally masculine in cultural style; hunting and gun magazines dress their models in check shirts and boots to emphasize their masculinity. The gun lobby hardly has to labour the inference that politicians trying to take away our guns are emasculating us. At both symbolic and practical levels, the defense of gun ownership is a defence of hegemonic masculinity.”

Raewyn Connell book Masculinities

Source: Masculinities (1995), Chapter 9

“And I have known the arms already, known them all —
Arms that are braceleted and white and bare
[But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!]
It is perfume from a dress
That makes me so digress?
Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl.
And should I then presume?
And how should I begin?”

T.S. Eliot The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915)

Light, Lie, Making love

“The principle of equality as taught in Christianity and Islam has no concern whatsoever with knowledge, wealth, or dress, as outward aspects. Both these religions consider a sense of humanity as the mean feature of religion. They preach that the sense of humanity should be respected by all; and none should disrespect others, none should treat others as unequals. These teachings are completely wanting in the Hindu religion. What is the use of such a religion, in which man's sense of humanity has no value? And what is the good in clinging to it?”

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891–1956) Father of republic India, champion of human rights, father of India's Constitution, polymath, revolutionary…

As quoted in http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00ambedkar/txt_ambedkar_salvation.html

Knowledge, Wealth, Religion, Sense

“A group of women around a shattered man.
I said with a smile: Let's call him Qais, Laila's mad lover.
The termperature sank abruptly.
Never in my life did I see eyes like those with trailing dresses.
The moment I left him they had, of course, to come after me.
And there they waited for me, one after the other.
I was in a rural city, a strange place on the banks of a river.
And even without my smiling, the shattered man had tired me.
It was in the old house that our meeting took place, and my jokes turned into blood.
I killed them with classic boredom.”

Ounsi el-Hajj (1937–2014) Lebanese poet, journalist, and translator

An Anthology of Modern Arabic Poetry, p. 75
Poetry, Rendezvous

Housing, Waiting, Smile, Lovers

“In strong families, positive strokes out-number negative broadsides by a wide margin. Members regularly express appreciation: "Thanks for fixing the drainpipe." "You look so nice in that dress." "The dinner was great."”

Joyce Brothers (1927–2013) Joyce Brothers

Criticism is offered gently. After all, strong families figure, if we can be kind to strangers, why not to one another?
10 Keys to a Strong Family (2002)

Family, Strong

“You can hear the earth sigh,
the shadow is chasing us,
the fear embodied us.
But the hunter of all shadows
dressed in the sun's morning ray
will continue to weave the mast of life
and like seeds that dreaming beneath the ground
your heart is still free to dreams”

alexis karpouzos

Life, Sun, Dreams, Heart

“The whole justification for permitting the corporate executive to be selected by the stockholders is that the executive is an agent serving the interests of his principal. This justification disappears when the corporate executive imposes taxes and spends the proceeds for “social” purposes. He becomes in effect a public employe, a civil servant, even though he remains in name an employe of private enterprise. On grounds of political principle, it is intolerable that such civil servants—insofar as their actions in the name of social responsibility are real and not just window‐dressing—should be selected as they are now. If they are to be civil servants, then they must be selected through a political process. If they are to impose taxes and make expenditures to foster “social” objectives, then political machinery must be set up to guide the assessment of taxes and to determine through a political process the objectives to be served. This is the basic reason why the doctrine of “social responsibility” involves the acceptance of the socialist view that political mechanisms, not market mechanisms, are the appropriate way to determine the allocation of scarce resources to alternative uses.”

Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer

“A Friedman doctrine‐- The Social Responsibility Of Business Is to Increase Its Profits” (Sept. 1970)

Way, Making love

“It is not given me to trace
The lovely laughter of that face,
Like a clear brook most full of light,
Or olives swaying on a height,
So silver they have wings, almost;
Like a great word once known and lost
And meaning all things. Nor her voice
A happy sound where larks rejoice,
Her body, that great loveliness,
The tender fashion of her dress,
I may not paint them.
These I see,
Blazing through all eternity,
A fire-winged sign, a glorious tree!”

Stephen Vincent Benét (1898–1943) poet, short story writer, novelist

Source: Young Adventure (1918), The Quality of Courage

Tree, Painting, Love, Light

“Following the stars through the honky-tonks and bars
Dream away on a country music pride
Start the evenin' by myself
You can bet by the hour of twelve
Gonna have a pretty painted lady by my side
Talkin' about a pretty pained lady by my side Painted lady, tell me of the past gone by
Hold me like the open range and ride me high
Listenin' to the days when your dress was made of calico or gingham
And a man was a manI can feel the pain, I can see the fears
On the painted cheeks that hide the tears
Of a lovely, lonesome cowgirl in disguise”

Willis Allan Ramsey (1951) American singer-songwriter

Painted Lady

Pain, Painting, Country, Past

“And I have known the arms already, known them all —
Arms that are braceleted and white and bare
[But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair! ]
It is perfume from a dress
That makes me so digress?
Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl.
And should I then presume?
And how should I begin?”

T.S. Eliot (1888–1965) 20th century English author

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915)

Light, Lie, Making love

“Norwegian women must take responsibility for the fact that Muslim men find their manner of dress provocative. And since these men believe women are responsible for rape,the women must adapt to the multicultural society around them.”

Unni Wikan (1944) Norwegian anthropologist

25 April 2007 http://islamineurope.blogspot.com/2007/04/norway-professor-unni-wikan-on-rape.html attributes it to an un-archived article from now-dead site FrontPageMag http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=20646 (excluded from archival). It was later repeated 5 July 2017 on page 20 of "Europe Arise" by Michael Walsh https://books.google.ca/books?id=2EIqDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT20 <br class="br">Misattributed

Women, Men

“The night dresses us with magic, leaving us free to dream, travel, interpret everything with the depth of our soul. The power of thought and will transform desire into reality.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) La notte ci veste di magia, lasciandoci liberi di sognare, viaggiare, interpretare tutto con la profondità della propria anima. La forza del pensiero e di volontà, trasforma il desiderio in realtà.
Source: prevale.net

Soul, Night, Dreams, Reality

“But one no longer wonders when one realizes that in the higher classes there is an unerring instinct of what tends to maintain and of what tends to destroy the organization by virtue of which they enjoy their privileges. The fashionable lady had certainly not reasoned out that if there were no capitalists and no army to defend them, her husband would have no fortune, and she could not have her entertainments and her ball-dresses. And the artist certainly does not argue that he needs the capitalists and the troops to defend them, so that they may buy his pictures. But instinct, replacing reason in this instance, guides them unerringly. And it is precisely this instinct which leads all men, with few exceptions, to support all the religious, political, and economic institutions which are to their advantage.”

Leo Tolstoy The Kingdom of God Is Within You

Source: The Kingdom of God is Within You (1894), Chapter XII, Conclusion—Repent Ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand

Support, Fashion, Men

“Is fashion important? Is it important to talk about luxury? Does it really matter if you’re going to wear a red dress or not? Finally, I thought, Because of that woman, it is important. You make people dream. You make people think. You have to give them stories. You have to introduce fantasy. Fashion is how we bring them into the world today. That is my job.”

Alber Elbaz (1961–2021) Israeli fashion designer

Source: Interview, 2009, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/fashion/alber-elbaz

Dreams, People, Thinking, World

“The poet makes silk dresses out of worms.”

Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) American poet

Opus Posthumous (1955), Adagia

Making love

“It is only when the mind and character slumber that the dress can be seen.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

“It was very difficult not to want to go into acting because it is in my blood and I still feel to this day that a dressing room is like another home.”

Sabina Franklyn (1954) British actress

Sabina Franklyn Table Manners Interview https://theatresoutheast.com/sabina-franklyn-interview/ (June 22, 2015)

Home, Feeling

“My motto is to always do your homework before any meeting or event, and to always dress for the occasion. Sometimes I say that it’s better to say nothing than to speak with no purpose!”

Brigitte Lin (1954) Taiwanese actress

As quoted in "Brigitte Lin on the Hong Kong Film Industry’s Golden Age" in Hong Kong Tatler (7 November 2012) https://hk.asiatatler.com/life/brigitte-lin-on-the-hong-kong-film-industry-s-golden-age

“I dressed more like a tomboy in very slouchy clothing. I was very humble because I didn’t think of myself as beautiful. It wasn’t something I even thought about.”

Liu Wen (model) (1988) Chinese model

Source: "Liu Wen Sees Beauty as a Journey, Not a Destination" in Harper's Bazaar https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/a36205161/liu-wen-beauty-issue-may-2021/ (26 April 2021)

Clothes, Beauty, Thinking

“As an actor, it really puts you there, like you’re really that person, you’re not yourself, you’re not dressing like yourself any more, you’re really embodying a different era. That’s really one of the most exciting things about acting for me, is the dress-up aspect of it.”

Ricardo Hoyos (1995) Canadian actor

Source: Interview: Bumblebee’s Ricardo Hoyos https://brieftake.com/interview-bumblebee-ricardo-hoyos/ (April 5, 2019)

Personality

“Sophistry is one of the methods by which politicians dress up their policies in alien clothing, to pass them off as more desirable than they really are. Spin doctors thrive best where ‘democracy’ is the slogan.”

Catherine Rowett (1956) Professor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia (born 1956)

Source: Presocratic Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction (2004), Ch. 7 : Spin doctors of the 5th century

Democracy, Clothes

“Self-confidence is key. You do not have to have the best shoes or a designer dress; you just have to be true to yourself.”

Emma Wareus (1990) Miss Botswana 2010, 1st runner-up to Miss World 2010

Source: http://www.missnews.com.br/noticias/wareus-rooting-for-miss-botswana "Wareus rooting for Miss Botswana

Confidence, Self-confidence, Shoe

“Today, the image always comes first, and it is enough to look at the women on our television to realize it. I don't want to make a bundle of all the grass, but having a nice and seductive image is necessary. I don't even know if it is wrong: a beautiful woman is right to be appreciated also for her own aesthetics. The problem occurs when, at an audition and with the same talent, the girl with the dress is taken instead of the girl in the suit. I realized I had a weapon available, my body, and I decided to use it. It is wrong, however, that talent alone is not enough.”

Paola Di Benedetto (1995) Italian showgirl, model, television presenter and radio host

Original: (it) L'immagine, oggi, arriva sempre prima, ed è sufficiente guardare le donne della nostra televisione per rendersene conto. Non voglio fare di tutta l'erba un fascio, ma avere un'immagine piacente e seducente è necessario. Non so neanche dire se sia sbagliato: una donna bella è giusto si faccia apprezzare anche per la propria estetica. Il problema subentra quando, ad un provino e a parità di talento, viene presa la ragazza con il vestitino al posto della ragazza in tailleur. Io ho capito di aver a disposizione un’arma, il mio corpo, e ho deciso di sfruttarla. È sbagliato, però, che il solo talento non sia sufficiente. <br class="br">Source: From the interview with de Claudia Casiraghi, Paola Di Benedetto: La bellezza aiuta, ma non basta https://www.vanityfair.it/people/italia/2020/12/07/paola-di-benedetto-oltre-il-corpo-libro-se-ci-credi-interviste, vanitifayr.it, 7 December 2020.

Girl, Grass, Beauty, Problem

“Women executives have a different sensitivity. Male executives only understood makeup or fashion as an instrument of seduction, because that was addressed to them. They didn’t understand that we like to put on makeup or dress up just because it’s a game; it’s pleasurable.”

Isabella Rossellini (1952) Italian actress and filmmaker

On being asked to be the face of Lancôme after being fired by a male executive decades earlier in “Isabella Rossellini: ‘Ageing brings a lot of happiness. You get fatter – but there is freedom’” https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/oct/13/isabella-rossellini-ageing-brings-a-lot-of-happiness-you-get-fatter-but-there-is-freedom in The Guardian (2020 Oct 13)

Game, Pleasure, Fashion, Understanding

“And after doing all they do they rise from their bed, they bathe, powder and perfume their persons, they dress, and gradually return to being what they are not.”

Julio Cortázar book Un tal Lucas

Un tal Lucas (1979)
Original: (es) 'AMOR 77'
Y después de hacer todo lo que hacen, se levantan, se bañan, se entalcan, se perfuman, se peinan, se visten, y así progresivamente van volviendo a ser lo que no son.

Personality

Quotes about dressing page 9

Quotes about dressing
page 9