Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Gold
You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns—you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold!
W. J. Bryan. Democratic Convention. July 9, 1896.
A thirst for gold,
The beggar’s vice, which can but overwhelm
The meanest hearts.
Byron—The Vision of Judgment. St. 43.
And yet he hadde “a thombe of gold” pardee.
Chaucer—Canterbury Tales. Prologue. L. 563.
Every honest miller has a golden thumb.
Chaucer—Canterbury Tales. Old saying.
For gold in phisik is a cordial;
Therefore he lovede gold in special.
Chaucer—Canterbury Tales. Prologue. L. 443.
Gold begets in brethren hate;
Gold in families debate;
Gold does friendship separate;
Gold does civil wars create.
Cowley—Anacreontics. Gold. L. 17.
What female heart can gold despise?
What cat’s averse to fish?
Gray—On the Death of a Favorite Cat.
That is gold which is worth gold.
Herbert—Jacula Prudentum.
Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold!
Bright and yellow, hard and cold.
Hood—Miss Kilmansegg. Her Moral.
Aurum per medios ire satellites
Et perrumpere amat saxa potentius
Ictu fulmineo.
Stronger than thunder’s winged force
All-powerful gold can speed its course;
Through watchful guards its passage make,
And loves through solid walls to break.
Horace—Ode XVI. Bk. III. L. 12. Francis’ trans.
The lust of gold succeeds the rage of conquest;
The lust of gold, unfeeling and remorseless!
The last corruption of degenerate man.
Samuel Johnson—Irene. Act I. Sc. 1.
L’or donne aux plus laids certain charme pour plaire,
Et quo sans lui le reste est une triste affaire.
Gold gives to the ugliest thing a certain charming air,
For that without it were else a miserable affair.
Molière—;. I.
Aurea nunc vere sunt specula; plurimus auro
Venit honos; auro conciliatur amor.
Truly now is the golden age; the highest honour comes by means of gold; by gold love is procured.
Ovid—Ars Amatoria. Bk. II. 277.
Not Philip, but Philip’s gold, took the cities of Greece.
Plutarch—Life of Paulus Æmilius. Quoted as a common saying. It refers to Philip II. of Macedon.
What nature wants, commodious gold bestows;
’Tis thus we cut the bread another sows.
Pope—Moral Essay. Ep. III. L. 21.
L’or est une chimère.
Gold is a vain and foolish fancy.
Scribe and Delavigne—Robert le Diable. Ch. I. Sc. 7.
How quickly nature falls into revolt
When gold becomes her object!
For this the foolish over-careful fathers
Have broke their sleep with thoughts, their brains with care,
Their bones with industry:
For this they have engrossed and pil’d up
The canker’d heaps of strange-achieved gold;
For this they have been thoughtful to invest
Their sons with arts and martial exercises.
Henry IV. Pt. II. Act IV. Sc. 5. L. 66.
Thou that so stoutly hast resisted me,
Give me thy gold, if thou hast any gold;
For I have bought it with an hundred blows.
Henry VI. Pt. III. Act II. Sc. 5. L. 79.
Commerce has set the mark of selfishness,
The signet of its all-enslaving power
Upon a shining ore, and called it gold;
Before whose image bow the vulgar great,
The vainly rich, the miserable proud,
The mob of peasants, nobles, priests, and kings,
And with blind feelings reverence the power
That grinds them to the dust of misery.
But in the temple of their hireling hearts
Gold is a living god, and rules in scorn
All earthly things but virtue.
Shelley—Queen Mab. Pt. V. St. 4.
Quid non mortalia pectora cogis,
Auri sacra fames?
Accursed thirst for gold! what dost thou not compel mortals to do?
Vergil—Æneid. III. 56.