QuoteProject
Dress is at all times a frivolous distinction, and excessive solicitude about it often destroys its own aim.
Jane Austen
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Excessive concern with fashion detracts from its purpose.

In this quote, Jane Austen critiques the superficial nature of fashion, suggesting that placing too much importance on clothing can undermine its intended function of personal expression. She points out that while dress can be a form of individuality, an obsession with it can lead to a loss of genuine identity and purpose.

Themes

FashionIdentityExpressionSuperficialityStyle

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a discussion about the impact of fashion on self-image.

More from Jane Austen

I pay very little regard...to what any young person says on the subject of marriage. If they profess a disinclination for it, I only set it down that they have not yet seen the right person.
Jane AustenRead
Nobody could catch cold by the sea; nobody wanted appetite by the sea; nobody wanted spirits; nobody wanted strength. Sea air was healing, softening, relaxing - fortifying and bracing - seemingly just as was wanted - sometimes one, sometimes the other. If the sea breeze failed, the seabath was the certain corrective; and where bathing disagreed, the sea air alone was evidently designed by nature for the cure.
Jane AustenRead
He certainly is very agreeable, and I give you leave to like him. You have liked many a stupider person.
Jane AustenRead
A person who is knowingly bent on bad behavior, gets upset when better behavior is expected of them.
Jane AustenRead
You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever.
Jane AustenRead
She hoped to be wise and reasonable in time; but alas! Alas! She must confess to herself that she was not wise yet.
Jane AustenRead

Similar quotes

I am part of a light, and it is the music. The Light fills my six senses: I see it, hear, feel, smell, touch and think. Thinking of it means my sixth sense. Particles of Light are written note. A bolt of lightning can be an entire sonata. A thousand balls of lightening is a concert.. For this concert I have created a Ball Lightning, which can be heard on the icy peaks of the Himalayas.
Nikola TeslaRead
I am sure the next step will be the electronic image, and I hope I shall live to see it. I trust that the creative eye will continue to function, whatever technological innovations may develop.
Ansel AdamsRead
To me, art almost always speaks more forcefully when it appears in an imperfect, accidental, and fragmentary way, somehow just signaling its presence, allowing one to feel it through the ineptitude of the interpretation. I prefer the Chopin that reaches me in the street from an open window to the Chopin served in great style from the concert stage.
Witold GombrowiczRead
Poiret made clothes for individual customers, but I wouldn't like to make a dress just for its own sake.
Yves Saint LaurentRead
The sources of poetry are in the spirit seeking completeness.
Muriel RukeyserRead
Fiction is the truth inside the lie.
Stephen KingRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.