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.

What nature wants, commodious gold bestows;
'Tis thus we cut the bread another sows.

What nature wants, commodious gold bestows;
'Tis thus we cut the bread another sows.

The man who works for the gold in the job rather than for the money in the pay envelope, is read more

The man who works for the gold in the job rather than for the money in the pay envelope, is the fellow who gets on.

How quickly nature falls into revolt
When gold becomes her object!
For this the foolish overcareful fathers
read more

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.

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.

The man who treasures his friends is usually solid gold himself.

The man who treasures his friends is usually solid gold himself.

Gold has worked down from Alexander's time ... When something holds good for two thousand years I do not believe read more

Gold has worked down from Alexander's time ... When something holds good for two thousand years I do not believe it can be so because of prejudice or mistaken theory.

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.

I see, the jewel best enamelled
Will lose his beauty; yet the gold bides still
That others read more

I see, the jewel best enamelled
Will lose his beauty; yet the gold bides still
That others touch, and often touching will
Wear gold; and no man that hath a name,
By falsehood and corruption doth it shame.