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

What does it mean?

"Clothes make the man" is an old saying meaning that how you dress affects how people see you. Twain takes it literally: people with no clothes on aren't taken seriously at all.

Key vocabulary

influence

the power to change what people think or do

• “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter: 'tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.”– Mark Twain
• “I know grammar by ear only, not by note, not by the rules.”– Mark Twain
• “In Paris they simply stared when I spoke to them in French; I never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language.”– Mark Twain
• “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”– Often attributed to Mark Twain