Jump To:

• Cleanliness is next to godliness
  Cleanliness is next to godliness

  Cleanliness is a great virtue.
• cleanliness is next to godliness
  cleanliness is next to godliness

  Being clean is a sign of spiritual purity or goodness, as in Don't forget to wash your ears—cleanliness is next to godliness. This phrase was first recorded in a sermon by John Wesley in 1778, but the idea is ancient, found in Babylonian and Hebrew religious tracts. It is still invoked, often as an admonition to wash or clean up.

Cleanliness is next to godliness

Cultural  

1. Cleanliness is a great virtue.

---

cleanliness is next to godliness Idioms  

1. Being clean is a sign of spiritual purity or goodness, as in Don't forget to wash your ears—cleanliness is next to godliness. This phrase was first recorded in a sermon by John Wesley in 1778, but the idea is ancient, found in Babylonian and Hebrew religious tracts. It is still invoked, often as an admonition to wash or clean up.

---

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Cleanliness is next to godliness cleanliness is next to godliness

Cleanliness is next to godliness is our modern saying; it is certainly the outward visible token of purity, which Nausicaa is going to bring into her domestic surroundings.

From Homer's Odyssey A Commentary by Snider, Denton Jaques

"Cleanliness is next to godliness," saith the proverb, and "order" is in the next degree; the housemaid, then, may be said to be the handmaiden to two of the most prominent virtues.

From The Book of Household Management by Beeton, Mrs. (Isabella Mary)

Cleanliness is next to godliness, and it is just as true of the outside of the house as of the inside.

From The Road and the Roadside by Potter, Burton Willis

"Cleanliness is next to godliness," is almost an axiom.

From The Easiest Way in Housekeeping and Cooking Adapted to Domestic Use or Study in Classes by Campbell, Helen

"Cleanliness is next to godliness," but         washing should be only for the purpose of keeping the 413:18 body clean, and this can be effected without scrubbing the         whole surface daily.

From Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures by Eddy, Mary Baker

If cleanliness is next to godliness, it would seem to have last place in the domain of patriotism.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 6, 2017

My rural homesteading family has printed up t-shirts with big, bold letters stating "Dirt Pride," to push back against many of our obsessively clean friends and relatives who believe cleanliness is next to godliness.

From New York Times ● Aug. 3, 2016

If cleanliness is next to godliness, then the New York City subway has long been in need of a few prayers.

From New York Times ● Oct. 25, 2011

Clearly, if cleanliness is next to godliness, it is also next to impossible in bathrooms that lack "facilities for perineal hygiene," meaning bidets.

From Time Magazine Archive

"And cleanliness is next to godliness," she plucked at Uncle Tony as he closed the back door after Maddy and me climbed in.

From "Patina" by Jason Reynolds