All my men wear English Leather, or they wear nothing at all.

This line is best understood not as an “anonymous” aphorism but as a slogan/tagline from mid-20th-century American advertising for English Leather, a men’s fragrance brand. The phrasing plays on a risqué double meaning—suggesting that the only thing the speaker’s “men” wear is the scent—typical of period masculinity marketing that linked cologne with sexual confidence and dominance. It circulated widely through print and broadcast advertising and later became a pop-culture reference point for retro ad copy, often repeated without attribution as a humorous one-liner.

The humor and persuasive force come from innuendo: “wear English Leather” is framed as essential attire, while “or they wear nothing at all” implies both intimacy and exclusivity. The line sells the product by equating it with irresistible masculine appeal—if a man uses the fragrance, he needs no other adornment. As a cultural artifact, it reflects how advertising compresses identity into consumable symbols (here, a scent standing in for virility and sophistication) and how slogans can detach from their commercial origins to become “anonymous” quotations.