Biographies are but the clothes and buttons of a man - the biography of the man himself cannot be written

Biographies are but the clothes and buttons of the man. The biography of the man himself cannot be written.

What a wee little part of a person's life are his acts and his words! His real life is led in his head, and is known to none but himself. All day long, the mill of his brain is grinding, and his thoughts, not those of other things, are his history. These are his life, and they are not written. Everyday would make a whole book of 80,000 words -- 365 books a year. Biographies are but the clothes and buttons of the man -- the biography of the man himself cannot be written.

Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.

Modesty died when clothes were born.

The older we grow the greater becomes our wonder at how much ignorance one can contain without bursting one's clothes