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

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

The lust of gold succeeds the rage of conquest;
The lust of gold, unfeeling and remorseless!
The read more

The lust of gold succeeds the rage of conquest;
The lust of gold, unfeeling and remorseless!
The last corruption of degenerate man.

Curst greed of gold, what crimes thy tyrant power has caused.

Curst greed of gold, what crimes thy tyrant power has caused.

That is gold which is worth gold.

That is gold which is worth gold.

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.

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.

Accursed thirst for gold! what dost thou not compel mortals to
do?
[Lat., Quid non mortalia pectora cogis,
read more

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

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

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

Commerce has set the mark of selfishness,
The signet of its all-enslaving power
Upon a shining ore, read more

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.