cleanliness is next to godliness

proverb A phrase that strongly encourages and promotes neatness and personal hygiene. My grandmother is always adamant that we wash our hands before every meal because cleanliness is next to godliness.

Prov. It is very important to keep yourself clean. Child: How come I have to take a bath? Mother: Cleanliness is next to godliness. The woman sitting next to me on the bus had obviously never heard that 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.

Physical cleanliness betokens spiritual purity. The idea is an ancient one, found in both Babylonian and Hebrew religious tracts. The precise phrase first appears in a sermon by John Wesley in 1778, which puts it in quotation marks but does not reveal the source. It is much quoted thereafter, by Dickens and Shaw (“Cleanliness which comes next to godliness, if not before it,” Man and Superman, 1903), among others.