John Wesley

John Wesley (1703–1791) was an Anglican cleric and the founder of the Methodist movement, a tireless preacher whose sermons and hymns shaped 18th-century evangelical Christianity. His sermon “On Dress” used the saying “Cleanliness is, indeed, next to godliness” — but he was quoting a proverb already in circulation, not coining it, and he pointedly noted that no text of Scripture makes neatness a religious duty. His fame is why the line is so often misremembered as his own, or as the Bible’s.