Naturism/Nudism - through the eyes of poets and writers et al

"Sweet, sane, still Nakedness in Nature! ah if poor, sick, prurient humanity in cities might really know you once more! Is not nakedness then indecent? No, not inherently. It is your thought, your sophistication, your fear, your respectability that is indecent. There come moods when these clothes of ours are not only too irksome to wear, but are themselves indecent. Perhaps indeed he or she to whom the free exhilarating ecstasy of nakedness in Nature has never been eligible (and how many thousands there are!) has not really known what purity is nor what faith or art or health really is". Walt Whitman "Nature always wear the color of the spirit" Ralph Waldo Emerson Nudity is a state of fact; lewdness, to coin a phrase, is a state of mind Paul Outerbridge, Jr. Photographer Modesty is a vastly overrated virtue John Kenneth Galbraith, US Economist, 1908-2006 Furthermore, because God created it, the human body can remain nude and uncovered and preserve its splendour and its beauty. Pope John Paul II Not all the Greek runners in the original Olympics were totally naked. Some wore shoes Mark Twain The main hangup in the world today is hypocrisy and insecurity. If people can't face up to the fact of other people being naked or smoking pot, or whatever they want to do, then we're never going to get anywhere. People have got to become aware that it's none of their business and that being nude is not obscene. Being ourselves is what's important. If everyone practiced being themselves instead of pretending to be what they aren't, there would be peace. John Lennon I wasn't really naked. I simply didn't have any clothes on Josephine Baker, Actress, 1906-1975 What spirit is so empty and blind, that it cannot recognize the fact that the foot is more noble than the shoe, and skin more beautiful than the garment with which it is clothed? Michaelangelo, Artist, 1475-1564 The taboo against nakedness is an obstacle to a decent attitude on the subject of sex. Lord Bertrand Russell 1929 There are those who so dislike the nude that they find something indecent in the naked truth F H Bradley, Philosopher, 1846-1924 Some day people will grow up and realize that the only thing vile about human bodies is the small minds some people have developed within them. Dick Hein Wearing clothes is like blindfolding the skin . You can't feel the world around you as you should. Barry Knell 9th May 2009 Warning: Clothing has been shown to cause extreme psychological dependence. Wear it at your own risk.. Ben Thornton The first purpose of clothes was not warmth or decency, but ornament. Among wild people, we find tattooing and painting even prior to clothes. The first spiritual want of a barbarous man is decoration; as indeed we still see among the barbarous classes in civilized countries. Thomas Carlyle, writer, 1795-1881 When I free my body from its clothes, from all their buttons, belts, and laces, it seems to me that my soul takes a deeper, freer breath. August Strindberg, playwright, 1849-1912 How idiotic civilization is! Why be given a body if you have to keep it shut up in a case like a rare, rare fiddle? Katherine Mansfield, writer, 1888-1923, Man is the sole animal whose nudity offends his own companions, and the only one who, in his natural actions, withdraws and hides himself from his own kind. Montaigne, writer, 1533-1592 Despite its puritan roots, the U.S. has a long history of skinny-dipping. Social nudity is celebrated in the writings of Walt Whitman and the landscape paintings of Thomas Eakins. Benjamin Franklin took a daily naked, air bath. while presidents John Quincy Adams, Theodore Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson enjoyed a refreshing nude dip. According to National Geographic Magazine, John Quincy Adams (1825-29), the sixth President, customarily took a nude early morning swim in the Potomac River. See National Geographic How is it possible for the human body, which was created in the image of god, to be offensive to anybody? Satan would love to see God's greatest creation be considered offensive. Many come to bring their clothes to church rather than themselves. ] Thomas Fuller The girl with dark hair was coming towards him across the field. With what seemed a single movement she tore off her clothes and flung them disdainfully aside. Her body was white and smooth, but it aroused no desire in him, indeed he barely looked at it. What overwhelmed him in that instant was admiration for the gesture with which she had thrown her clothes aside. With all its grace and carelessness it seemed to annihilate a whole [oppressive] culture, a whole system of thought. George Orwell, 1984 The Britons (say historians) were naked, civilized men, learned, studious, abstruse in thought and contemplation; naked, simple, plain in their acts and manners; wiser than after ages William Blake, What a singular fact for an angel visitant to this earth to carry back in his note-book, that men were forbidden to expose their bodies under the severest penalties! Henry David Thoreau, I like to run down to the beach and have a little swim in the nude in the morning. former US Defense Secretary Robert McNamara Complete nudity in itself is not erotic. It becomes so only when preceded by or contrasted to a state of dress. In this limited context then, all clothes become somewhat immoral, if we define immorality as inciting sexual interest. Habitual nakedness may indeed be capable of elevating man to a higher mental plane Dr. Marylnn J. Horn Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence. Thomas Paine I will go to the bank by the wood and become undisguised and naked, : I am mad for it to be in contact with me. Walt Whitman The body seems to feel beauty when exposed to it as it feels the campfire or sunshine, entering not by the eyes alone, but equally through all ones flesh like radiant heat, making a passionate ecstatic pleasure glow not explainable. John Muir It is an interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes. Henry David Thoreau Naturism/Nudism is a way of life characterized by the practice of nudity, both alone and in social settings, generally in mixed-gender groups. It encourages self-respect, respect for others and for the environment, embodying freedom and a unique sense of communion with nature. It is purposely non-erotic and non-sexual. Rev Bob Horrocks