Gold's father is dirt, yet it regards itself as noble.

Gold's father is dirt, yet it regards itself as noble.

What female heart can gold despise?
What cat's averse to fish?

What female heart can gold despise?
What cat's averse to fish?

(Portia:) A quarrel ho! already! What's the matter?
(Gratiano:) About a hoop of gold, a paltry ring
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(Portia:) A quarrel ho! already! What's the matter?
(Gratiano:) About a hoop of gold, a paltry ring
That she did give me, whose posy was
For all the world like cutler's poetry
Upon a knife--'Love me, and leave me not.'

Not Philip, but Phillip's gold, took the cities of Greece.

Not Philip, but Phillip's gold, took the cities of Greece.

Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is read more

Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold.

How quickly nature falls into revolt
When gold becomes her object!
For this the foolish overcareful fathers
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How quickly nature falls into revolt
When gold becomes her object!
For this the foolish overcareful fathers
Have broke their sleep with thoughts, their brains with care.
Their bones with industry.
For this they have engrossed and piled up
The cankered heaps of strange-achieved gold;
For this they have been thoughtful to invest
Their sons with arts and martial exercises.

Accursed thirst for gold! what dost thou not compel mortals to
do?
[Lat., Quid non mortalia pectora cogis,
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Accursed thirst for gold! what dost thou not compel mortals to
do?
[Lat., Quid non mortalia pectora cogis,
Auri sacra fames?]

A thirst for gold,
The beggar's vice, which can but overwhelm
The meanest hearts.

A thirst for gold,
The beggar's vice, which can but overwhelm
The meanest hearts.

Gold gives to the ugliest thing a certain charming air,
For that without it were else a miserable affair.
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Gold gives to the ugliest thing a certain charming air,
For that without it were else a miserable affair.
[Fr., L'or donne aux plus laids certain charme pour plaire,
Et que sans lui le reste est une triste affaire.]