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Gold

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Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold!
Bright and yellow, hard and cold.
—Thomas Hood

Gold is a chemical element; its chemical symbol is Au (from Latin aurum) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a bright-metallic-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. It has been a valuable and highly sought-after precious metal for coinage, jewelry, and other arts since long before the beginning of recorded history.

Arranged alphabetically by author or source:
A · B · C · D · E · F · G · H · I · J · K · L · M · N · O · P · Q · R · S · T · U · V · W · X · Y · Z · Anonymous · See also · External links

B

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  • You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns—you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold!
  • When we took over Berkshire, gold was at twenty dollars and Berkshire was at fifteen — so, gold is now at sixteen hundred and Berkshire is at a hundred and twenty thousand. So, you can pick different starting periods. Obviously, if you pick anything that has gone up a lot ... in the last month or year, it will beat ninety ... or ninety-five percent of other investments. The one thing I would bet my life on, essentially, is over a fifty-year period not only will Berkshire do considerably better than gold, but common stocks as a group will do better than gold ... and, probably, farmland will do better than gold. ... If you own an ounce of gold now and ... you caress it over the next hundred years, you'll have an ounce of gold a hundred years from now. If you own a hundred acres of farmland, you'll also have a hundred acres of farmland a hundred years from now and you will have taken the crops for a hundred years and sold them — and, presumably, bought more farmland with the process. It's very hard for an unproductive investment to beat productive investments over any long period of time. ... I can say bonds are no good — and Ben Bernanke still smiles at me. ... If you say anything negative about gold, ... it arouses passions with people — which is kind of fascinating — because, usually, if you thought through something intellectually, it really shouldn't make much difference what people say.

C

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  • And yet he hadde "a thombe of gold" pardee.
    • Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, Prologue, l. 563
  • Gold begets in brethren hate;
    Gold in families debate;
    Gold does friendship separate;
    Gold does civil wars create.
  • To virgin minds, which yet their native whiteness hold,
    Not yet discoloured with the love of gold
    (That jaundice of the soul,
    Which makes it look so gilded and so foul)

G

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  • "Gold! I knew it! Just think of it, Queen. Six bags of gold!" trilled the King.
    "What will you do with them, King dear?" asked the Queen.
    "I won't do anything with them. I'll just have them and be rich."
  • What female heart can gold despise?
    What cat's averse to fish?
    • Thomas Gray, "On the Death of a Favorite Cat", in Dodsley's Collection (1748)

H

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  • That is gold which is worth gold.
  • Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold!
    Bright and yellow, hard and cold.
    • Thomas Hood, "Miss Kilmansegg", Her Moral. The Comic Annual for 1842 (1842) p. 106
  • 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, Odes, bk. 3, no. 16, l. 12 (tr. Philip Francis, 1742)
  • One of the biggest appeals of gold is its relative scarcity. Only around 216,265 tonnes of the metal have ever been mined, according to the World Gold Council trade association.
    That's enough to fill between three to four Olympic-sized swimming pools. The majority of that was only extracted from the earth since 1950, as mining technology advanced and new deposits were discovered.

J

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  • But scarce observ'd the Knowing and the Bold,
    Fall in the gen'ral Massacre of Gold;
    Wide-wasting Pest! that rages unconfin'd,
    And crouds with Crimes the Records of Mankind,
    For Gold his Sword the Hireling Ruffian draws,
    For Gold the hireling Judge distorts the laws;
    Wealth heap'd on Wealth, nor truth nor Safety buys,
    The Dangers gather as the Treasures rise.
  • 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 (1749) act 1, sc. 1

L

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  • Bright El Dorado, land of gold,
      We have so sought for thee,
    There's not a spot in all the globe
      Where such a land can be.

M

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Money is gold, and nothing else.
—J. P. Morgan
  • 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, Sganarelle (1660) sc. 1. Reported in Hoyt's (1922) p. 325
  • Money is gold, and nothing else.
  • O you who believe! most surely many of the doctors of law and the monks eat away the property of men falsely, and turn (them) from Allah's way; and (as for) those who hoard up gold and silver and do not spend it in Allah's way, announce to them a painful chastisement, On the day when it shall be heated in the fire of hell, then their foreheads and their sides and their backs will be branded with it: This is what you hoarded up for yourselves, therefore taste what you hoarded.
  • Well, I have never had the slightest interest in owning gold. It's a much better life to work with businesses and people engaged in business. I can't imagine a worse crowd to deal with than a bunch of gold bugs.
    • Charlie Munger, "Timesaver Edit: Full Q&A — Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, 2012 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting", IDP (Infinite Dreams Publishing), YouTube (June 2, 2019)

O

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  • 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. 2, l. 277. Reported in Hoyt's (1922) p. 325

P

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  • Not Philip, but Philip's gold, took the cities of Greece.
  • What nature wants, commodious gold bestows;
    'Tis thus we cut the bread another sows.

S

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"Gold," says the Consul, knowing that this is the only syllable that has held its power over the ages. —Dan Simmons
  • Imaro exploded. "Why do men fight like starving lions over yellow metal and let valuable cattle go?"
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.

V

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  • But still less should the gold of rich men lazily sleep its heavy sleep in the urns and gloom of treasuries. This so weighty metal, when it becomes the associate of a fancy, assumes the most active virtues of the mind. It has her restless nature. Its essence is to vanish. It changes into all things, without being itself changed. It raises blocks of stone, pierces mountains, opens the gates of fortresses and the most secret hearts; it enchains men; it dresses, it undresses women with an almost miraculous promptitude. It is truly the most abstract agent that exists, next to thought. But thought exchanges and envelops images only, whereas gold incites and promotes the transmutations of all real things into one another; itself remaining incorruptible, and passing untainted through all hands.
    • Paul Valéry, Eupalinos, or the Architect (1921) (tr. William McCausland Stewart, 1989)
  • Quid non mortalia pectora cogis,
    Auri sacra fames?
    • Accursed thirst for gold! what dost thou not compel mortals to do?
    • Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, l. 56. Reported in Hoyt's (1922) p. 326

W

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  • In England the functions of a standardising commodity and of a medium of exchange are both alike performed by gold. Gold is applied to a vast number of purposes in the arts and sciences, and were it more abundant it would replace other metals in many more. Consequently a great number of easily accessible persons actually give a relatively high place to gold on their scales of preference, in virtue of its direct significance to them. It is established by custom (and, so far as that is possible, by law) as the universally accepted commodity; and at the same time it is used as the common measure in terms of which our estimates of all exchangeable things may be stated.

Anonymous

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King: Remember the Golden Rule.
1 Peasant: What's that?
2 Peasant: Whoever has the gold, makes the rules!
  • Gold is one of the things for the non-existence of which man would probably be all the better. It was originally called into existence for the service of the Mishkan and of the Temple.
  • Every honest miller has a golden thumb.
    • Old saying, from Chaucer (see above). Reported in Hoyt's (1922) p. 325
  • King: Remember the Golden Rule.
    1 Peasant: What's that?
    2 Peasant: Whoever has the gold, makes the rules!
  • Gold is mined in around 80 countries, with approximately 3,200 tons produced every year. The largest producers are China, Australia, Russia, and the US. Most gold comes from large, industrial mines, though 15 to 20 percent of the world's gold comes from small-scale or artisanal mines, primarily in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Jewelry accounts for over 50 percent of the world's gold demand, an estimated 1,600 tons of gold for 2016...
    Gold from industrial mines may be exported directly to refiners, while artisanal gold may pass from one trader to another before being exported for refining. Gold refiners play a crucial role in the gold supply chain. Because the vast majority of the world’s gold passes through a small number of refiners, these companies are sometimes called the "choke point" of the gold supply chain.
    Once gold is refined, it is sold to banks, manufacturers, jewelry and watch companies, electronics companies, or other businesses. Jewelry companies may source their gold directly from refiners, or from manufacturers, banks, or international gold traders. China and India are the largest markets for gold jewelry, representing over 50 percent of global jewelry demand.
  • I started working when I was 12. Sometimes I help pull out the bags, and sometimes I go underwater. It’s just like digging with a shovel, and putting it in a sand bag. [To breathe] I use the compressor... I bite the hose and release it whenever I need air, inhale, and exhale through my nose... At first, it was hard to think about going down… I don’t use goggles. I basically don’t use my eyes. I use my hands to look for the passage, the canal... Sometimes you have to make it up fast, especially if you have no air in your hose if the machine stops working. It’s a normal thing [for the compressor to stop working]. It's happened to me.
    • Filipino miner ("Joseph"), quoted in "The Hidden Cost of Jewelry", Human Rights Watch (February 8, 2018)
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  • Encyclopedic article on Gold on Wikipedia
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