“His business taught him expedients to husband time: in our victimizing climate he was fitted for storms or bad walking; his coat must contain certain special conveniences for a walker, with a note-book and spy-glass, – a soldier in his outfits. For shoddy he had an aversion: a pattern of solid Vermont gray gave him genuine satisfaction, and he could think of corduroy. His life was one of fabric. He spared the outfitters no trouble; he wished the material cut to suit him, as he was to wear it, not worshipping “the fashion” in cloth or opinion.”

“In these walks, two things he must have from his tailor: his clothes must fit, and the pockets, especially, must be made with reference to his out-door pursuits. They must accomidate his note-book and spy-glass; and so their width and depth was regulated by the size of the note-book.
-William Ellery Channing, Thoreau the Poet-Naturalist

“Margaret inaugurated, in 1839, her “Conversations” for the intellectual women of Boston, exploring such subjects as classical mythology and “What is Life?” Margaret Fuller presided over these bacchantic rites in homemade dresses that her adorers thought to be of Oriental magnificence, and at the climax of each session, when she had reduced the others to awed silence, she would close her eyes in an inspired trance and utter unfathomable words, which they thought eminated from some occult or Delphic wisdom.”
-Perry Miller, Margaret Fuller, American Romantic