"Take exactly enough clothes to stay warm and dry, then stop."

There was a time when I brought extra clothes just to have some clean and dry things to change into on a 3 or 4 day trip. Eliminating all my non-essential clothes saved me more weight than any other changes I have made in lightening my pack.

"Cotton clothes are dead man's clothes. Synthetics will keep you warmer and drier and, consequently, alive."

When I took this advice, the benefit wasn't so much staying alive, as it was that, once I eliminated 98% of the cotton from my pack, I not only had lighter clothes, but I also could wash a few items and dry them in a small fraction of the time it would take to wash and dry cotton. That way if I put in the effort, I can wear fairly clean clothes and be safer in wet weather, too.