Godiva is not just naked chocolate

According to durable, if perhaps not reliable, tradition, the lady Godgyfu made public protest against the tax policies of her husband Leofric, Earl of Mercia, on this day in 1057. She begged her husband to repeal an onerous tax, saying that those who paid it would surely starve as a result. He replied that if she, a righteous woman, would ride naked through the town he would repeal the tax. The residents were commanded to shut themselves in their houses, and the lady rode through town. Only one, the original Peeping Tom, was said to peek. Her name was later Latinized, we spell it Godiva.

Whatever the reasons, I enjoyed being nude; it felt natural to me. I got the same kind of pleasure from being free of clothing that many people get from being well dressed.
- Charis Wilson

If you use your imagination, you can look at any actress and see her nude. I hope to make you use your imagination.
- Hedy Lamarr, 1913 - 2000

In nakedness I behold the majesty of the essential instead of the trappings of pretension.
- Horatio Greenough, 1805 - 1852

Bare skin is the one and only right criterion for receiving water's gracious acceptance or any acceptance whatsoever from that element. But Pliny also seems to say something more: Stripping off not caution but the stale, crusty garments of preconception, peeling sensibly down to raw, new nakedness, is the only way to enter and be properly embraced by the world.
- Janet Lembke, Skinny Dipping

I have seen three emperors in their nakedness, and the sight was not inspiring.
- Otto von Bismarck, 1815 - 1898