Truth's best ornament is nakedness. [ Proverb ]
Ornaments were invented by modesty. [ Joubert ]
All finery is a sign of littleness. [ Lavater ]
Honesty needs no disguise or ornament. [ Otway ]
The world is still deceived by ornament. [ William Shakespeare ]
Her polished limbs,
Veiled in a simple robe, their best attire,
Beyond the pomp of dress; for loveliness
Needs not the foreign aid of ornament,
But is, when unadorned, adorned the most. [ Thomson ]
Ornament is but the gilded shore
To a most dangerous sea; the beauteous scarf
Veiling an Indian; beauty, in a word.
The seeming truth which cunning times put on
To entrap the wisest. [ William Shakespeare ]
Individuals, not stations, ornament society. [ William Ewart Gladstone ]
O, how much more doth Beauty beauteous seem.
By that sweet ornament which truth doth give!
The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem,
For that sweet odor which doth in it live. [ William Shakespeare ]
Clearness is the ornament of profound thought. [ Vauvenargues ]
Around the neck what dross are gold and pearl! [ Young ]
Conceit, more rich in matter than in words,
Brags of his substance, not of ornament:
They are but beggars that can count their worth. [ William Shakespeare ]
Loveliness needs not the foreign aid of ornament,
But is, when unadorned, adorned the most. [ James Thomson ]
The true ornament of matrons is virtue, not apparel. [ Justin ]
The ornament of a house is the friends who visit it. [ Emerson ]
Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. [ Bacon ]
A virtuous woman, though ugly, is the ornament of the house. [ Proverb ]
Modesty is an ornament, yet people get on better without it. [ German Proverb ]
That charity which is the perfection and ornament of religion. [ Addison ]
Bashfulness is an ornament to youth, but a reproach to old age. [ Aristotle ]
The love of ornament creeps slowly but surely into the female heart. [ Mrs. S. C. Hall ]
Jewelry and profuse ornaments are unmistakable evidences of vulgarity. [ Bulwer-Lytton ]
He removes the greatest ornament of friendship who takes away from it respect. [ Cicero ]
The hall is the ornament of a house, (i.e. first impressions have great weight). [ Proverb ]
Women of society, as well as Hottentots, run naturally to ornaments and gewgaws. [ Pere Dumas ]
Women, like roses, should wear only their own colors, and emit no borrowed perfumes. [ Rabbi Ben Azai ]
Purity of heart is the noblest inheritance, and love the fairest ornament, of woman. [ Matthias Claudius ]
Dumb jewels often, in their silent kind, more than quick words, do move a woman's mind. [ William Shakespeare ]
O, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem, by that sweet ornament which truth doth give! [ Shakespeare ]
Jewels! It's my belief that when woman was made, jewels were invented only to make her the more mischievous. [ Douglas Jerrold ]
The hair is the finest ornament women have. Of old, virgins used to wear it loose, except when they were in mourning. [ Luther ]
The connoisseur of art must be able to appreciate what is simply beautiful, but the common run of people are satisfied with ornament. [ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ]
Her head was bare, but for her native ornament of hair, which in a simple knot was tied above - sweet negligence, unheeded bait of love! [ Dryden ]
Fine speeches are the instruments of fools or knaves, who use them when they want good sense; but honesty needs no disguise or ornament. [ Otway ]
What an ornament and safeguard is humor! Far better than wit for a poet and writer. It is a genius itself, and so defends from the insanities. [ Walter Scott ]
Wise sayings are not only for ornament, but for action and business, having a point or edge, whereby knots in business are pierced and discovered. [ Bacon ]
The royal navy of England has ever been its greatest defence and ornament; it is its ancient and natural strength; the floating bulwark of the island. [ Sir Wm. Blackstone ]
Libraries are the wardrobes of our literature, whence men, properly informed, might bring something for ornament, much for curiosity, and more for use. [ J. Dyer ]
Candor is the seal of a noble mind, the ornament, and pride of man, the sweetest charm of woman, the scorn of rascals and the rarest virtue of sociability. [ Bentzel-Sternaft ]
When I behold the passion for ornamentation, and the corresponding power, I feel as if women had so far shown what they are bad for, rather than what they are good for. [ Julia Ward Howe ]
Labour is the ornament of the citizen; the reward of toil is when you confer blessings on others; his high dignity confers honour on the king; be ours the glory of our hands. [ Friedrich Schiller ]
Art thou beautiful? Live, then, in accordance with the curious work and frame of the creation, and let the beauty of thy person teach thee to beautify thy mind with holiness, the ornament of the beloved of God. [ Penn ]
Plutarch has a fine expression, with regard to some woman of learning humility, and virtue; - that her ornaments were such as might be purchased without money, and would render any woman's life both glorious and happy. [ Sterne ]
One of the first principles of decorative art is that in all manufactures ornament must hold a place subordinate to that of utility; and when, by its exuberance, ornament interferes with utility, it is misplaced and vulgar. [ G. C. Mason ]
A simple garb is the proper costume of the vulgar; it is cut for them, and exactly suits their measure; but it is an ornament for those who have filled up their lives with great deeds. I liken them to beauty in dishabille, but more bewitching on that account. [ Bruyere ]
Women have that feminine sensuousness which delights in color and odor and richness of fabric. Their sense of beauty is untaught. A little lower in the scale of civilization, they would pierce their noses, and dye their fingernails, and wear strings of glass beads. [ Mrs. L. G. Calhoun ]
We know much of a writer by his style. An open and imperious disposition is shown in short sentences, direct and energetic. A secretive and proud mind is cold and obscure in style. An affectionate and imaginative nature pours out luxuriantly, and blossoms all over with ornament. [ Beecher ]
We all originally came from the woods! it is hard to eradicate from any of us the old taste for the tattoo and the war-paint; and the moment that money gets into our pockets, it somehow or another breaks out in ornaments on our person, without always giving refinement to our manners. [ Whipple ]
Nor do we accept as genuine the person not characterized by this blushing bashfulness, this youthfulness of heart, this sensibility to the sentiment of suavity and self-respect. Modesty is bred of self-reverence. Fine manners are the mantle of fair minds. None are truly great without this ornament. [ Alcott ]
Honor is not a virtue in itself, it is the mail behind which the virtues fight more securely. A man without honor is as maimed in his equipment as an accoutred knight without helmet. Honor is not simply truthfulness; it is truthfulness sparkling with the fire of a suspective personality. It is something more than an ornament even to the loftiest. [ George H. Calvert ]
It is the saying of an old divine, Two things in ray apparel I will chiefly aim at - commodiousness and decency; more than these is not commendable, yet I hate an effeminate spruceness as much as a fantastic disorder. A neglected comeliness is the best ornament.
It is said of the celebrated Mr. Whitfield that he always was very clean and neat, and often said pleasantly that a minister of the gospel ought to be without a spot.
[ J. Beaumont ]
Among the smaller duties of life, I hardly know any one more important than that of not praising where praise is not due. Reputation is one of the prizes for which men contend: it is, as Mr. Burke calls it, the cheap defense and ornament of nations.
It produces more labor and more talent than twice the wealth of a country could ever rear up. It is the coin of genius, and it is the imperious duty of every man to bestow it with the most scrupulous justice and the wisest economy. [ Sydney Smith ]