A collection of quotes on the topic of diamond, likeness, doing, gold.
“Its hard to be a diamond in a rhinestone world.”
Response to Harold Bell, question about his view on friendship in an Interview (video) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InSFYdFaS3E.
"Ocean Eyes" — though her breakthrough hit after she posted her performance of it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d--DyK0wtYo to SoundCloud for her dance teacher on 18 November 2015, the lyrics were written entirely by her brother Finneas O'Connell, who also collaborates with her on most of her other musical work. · Official Music Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viimfQi_pUw
Misattributed
“Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend. ”
Variant: My crown is in my heart, not on my head; not decked with diamonds and Indian stones, nor to be seen: my crown is called content, a crown it is that seldom kings enjoy.
Source: King Henry VI, Part 3
“Sometimes glass glitters more than diamonds because it has more to prove.”
Source: The Truth
“I never hated a man enough to give him his diamonds back.”
The Observer, "Sayings of the Week", August 28, 1957
The Art of Peace (1992)
Context: Techniques employ four qualities that reflect the nature of our world. Depending on the circumstance, you should be: hard as a diamond, flexible as a willow, smooth-flowing like water, or as empty as space.
“Gold is cold, diamonds are dead, a limousine is a car, don't pretend, feel what's real… ”
1991
“Let us not be too particular. It is better to have old second-hand diamonds than none at all.”
“True friends are like diamonds – bright, beautiful, valuable, and always in style.”
“Light is in both the broken bottle and the diamond.”
Source: The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have
Source: Laughter in the Dark
“The jungle is dark but full of diamonds, Willy.”
Source: Death Of A Salesman
Khushwant Singh, quoted in Elst, Koenraad (2002). Who is a Hindu?: Hindu revivalist views of Animism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and other offshoots of Hinduism. ISBN 978-8185990743
All Falls Down
Lyrics, The College Dropout (2004)
“I would have bartered a diamond mine for a glass of pure spring water!”
Journey to the Centre of the Earth (Griffith and Farran, 1871), Ch. XVII: Vertical descent
This sentence, like many others in the Griffin and Farran translation of the book, has no source in the original French text.
Misattributed
Quel pur travail de fins éclairs consume
Maint diamant d'imperceptible écume,
Et quelle paix semble se concevoir!
Quand sur l'abîme un soleil se repose,
Ouvrages purs d'une éternelle cause,
Le temps scintille et le songe est savoir.
As translated by by C. Day Lewis
Charmes ou poèmes (1922)
“Oh, Diamond! Diamond! thou little knowest what mischief thou hast done!”
This is from an anecdote found in St. Nicholas magazine, Vol. 5, No. 4, (February 1878) http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15331/15331-h/15331-h.htm :
Sir Isaac Newton had on his table a pile of papers upon which were written calculations that had taken him twenty years to make. One evening, he left the room for a few minutes, and when he came back he found that his little dog "Diamond" had overturned a candle and set fire to the precious papers, of which nothing was left but a heap of ashes.
Diamonds, Unapologetic (2012). Cowritten with Benjamin Levin, Mikkel Eriksen and Tor Hermansen.
Songs
I'm not gonna lie to you guys, George knows that I do it; I don't think he likes it!
Hot & Fluffy (2007)
Falsely attributed to Darwin, but actually from The Clansman: An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan (1905) by Thomas Dixon, page 134 http://www.freefictionbooks.org/books/c/11773-the-clansman-by-thomas-dixon?start=133.
Misattributed
Sakhi, 171; translation by Yashwant K. Malaiya based on that of Puran Sahib.
Bijak
“Admire the diamond that can bear the hits of a hammer.”
Sakhi, 168; translation by Yashwant K. Malaiya based on that of Puran Sahib.
Bijak
Context: Admire the diamond that can bear the hits of a hammer. Many deceptive preachers, when critically examined, turn out to be false.
A Few Thoughts for a Young Man (1850)
Context: The laws of nature are sublime, but there is a moral sublimity before which the highest intelligences must kneel and adore. The laws by which the winds blow, and the tides of the ocean, like a vast clepsydra, measure, with inimitable exactness, the hours of ever-flowing time; the laws by which the planets roll, and the sun vivifies and paints; the laws which preside over the subtle combinations of chemistry, and the amazing velocities of electricity; the laws of germination and production in the vegetable and animal worlds, — all these, radiant with eternal beauty as they are, and exalted above all the objects of sense, still wane and pale before the Moral Glories that apparel the universe in their celestial light. The heart can put on charms which no beauty of known things, nor imagination of the unknown, can aspire to emulate. Virtue shines in native colors, purer and brighter than pearl, or diamond, or prism, can reflect. Arabian gardens in their bloom can exhale no such sweetness as charity diffuses. Beneficence is godlike, and he who does most good to his fellow-man is the Master of Masters, and has learned the Art of Arts. Enrich and embellish the universe as you will, it is only a fit temple for the heart that loves truth with a supreme love. Inanimate vastness excites wonder; knowledge kindles admiration, but love enraptures the soul. Scientific truth is marvellous, but moral truth is divine; and whoever breathes its air and walks by its light, has found the lost paradise. For him, a new heaven and a new earth have already been created. His home is the sanctuary of God, the Holy of Holies. <!-- p. 35
Sagredo
Variant translation: I cannot without great wonder, nay more, disbelief, hear it being attributed to natural bodies as a great honor and perfection that they are impassable, immutable, inalterable, etc.: as conversely, I hear it esteemed a great imperfection to be alterable, generable, and mutable. It is my opinion that the earth is very noble and admirable by reason of the many and different alterations, mutations, and generations which incessantly occur in it. And if, without being subject to any alteration, it had been one great heap of sand, or a mass of jade, or if, since the time of the deluge, the waters freezing which covered it, it had continued an immense globe of crystal, wherein nothing had ever grown, altered, or changed, I should have esteemed it a wretched lump of no benefit to the Universe, a mass of idleness, and in a word superfluous, exactly as if it had never been in Nature. The difference for me would be the same as between a living and a dead creature. I say the same concerning the Moon, Jupiter, and all the other globes of the Universe.
The more I delve into the consideration of the vanity of popular discourses, the more empty and simple I find them. What greater folly can be imagined than to call gems, silver, and gold noble, and earth and dirt base? For do not these persons consider that if there were as great a scarcity of earth as there is of jewels and precious metals, there would be no king who would not gladly give a heap of diamonds and rubies and many ingots of gold to purchase only so much earth as would suffice to plant a jessamine in a little pot or to set a tangerine in it, that he might see it sprout, grow up, and bring forth such goodly leaves, fragrant flowers, and delicate fruit? It is scarcity and plenty that makes things esteemed and despised by the vulgar, who will say that there is a most beautiful diamond, for it resembles a clear water, and yet would not part from it for ten tons of water. 'These men who so extol incorruptibility, inalterability, and so on, speak thus, I believe, out of the great desire they have to live long and for fear of death, not considering that, if men had been immortal, they would not have come into the world. These people deserve to meet with a Medusa's head that would transform them into statues of diamond and jade, that so they might become more perfect than they are.
Part of this passage, in Italian, I detrattori della corruptibilitá meriterebber d'esser cangiati in statue., has also ben translated into English as "Detractors of corruptibility deserve being turned into statues."
Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo. (PDF) http://www.liberliber.it/biblioteca/g/galilei/le_opere_di_galileo_galilei_edizione_nazionale_sotto_gli_etc/pdf/le_ope_p.pdf, Le Opere di Galileo Galilei vol. VII, pg. 58.
Compare Maimonides "If man were never subject to change there could be no generation; there would be one single being..." Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190)
Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (1632)
Context: I cannot without great astonishment — I might say without great insult to my intelligence — hear it attributed as a prime perfection and nobility of the natural and integral bodies of the universe that they are invariant, immutable, inalterable, etc., while on the other hand it is called a great imperfection to be alterable, generable, mutable, etc. For my part I consider the earth very noble and admirable precisely because of the diverse alterations, changes, generations, etc. that occur in it incessantly. If, not being subject to any changes, it were a vast desert of sand or a mountain of jasper, or if at the time of the flood the waters which covered it had frozen, and it had remained an enormous globe of ice where nothing was ever born or ever altered or changed, I should deem it a useless lump in the universe, devoid of activity and, in a word, superfluous and essentially non-existent. This is exactly the difference between a living animal and a dead one; and I say the same of the moon, of Jupiter, and of all other world globes.
The deeper I go in considering the vanities of popular reasoning, the lighter and more foolish I find them. What greater stupidity can be imagined than that of calling jewels, silver, and gold "precious," and earth and soil "base"? People who do this ought to remember that if there were as great a scarcity of soil as of jewels or precious metals, there would not be a prince who would not spend a bushel of diamonds and rubies and a cartload of gold just to have enough earth to plant a jasmine in a little pot, or to sow an orange seed and watch it sprout, grow, and produce its handsome leaves, its fragrant flowers, and fine fruit. It is scarcity and plenty that make the vulgar take things to be precious or worthless; they call a diamond very beautiful because it is like pure water, and then would not exchange one for ten barrels of water. Those who so greatly exalt incorruptibility, inalterability, etc. are reduced to talking this way, I believe, by their great desire to go on living, and by the terror they have of death. They do not reflect that if men were immortal, they themselves would never have come into the world. Such men really deserve to encounter a Medusa's head which would transmute them into statues of jasper or of diamond, and thus make them more perfect than they are.
Hérodiade.
Hérodiade (1898)
Context: I am alone in my monotonous country,
While all those around me live in the idolatry
Of a mirror reflecting in its depths serene
Herodiade, whose gaze is diamond keen...
O final enchantment! yes, I sense it, I am alone.
“You say You want Diamonds on a Ring of Gold,Your Story to remain untold.Your Lovee not to go Cold”
"All I Want Is You"
Lyrics, Rattle And Hum(1988)
Context: You say You want Diamonds on a Ring of Gold, Your Story to remain untold. Your Lovee not to go Cold
"All I Want Is You"
Lyrics, Rattle And Hum(1988)
Context: You say you want diamonds on a ring of Gold, You say you want your story to remain untold. But all the promise we made from the Cradle to the Grave, When All I want is You
All Falls Down
Lyrics, The College Dropout (2004)
“Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without.”
Attributed in Mohammed Sirajul Islam (1967), Everyman's General Knowledge
In fact this is a Chinese saying by a Confucian scholar from the Ming Dynasty, 焦竑 (Jiao Hong) (1540—1620)《玉堂丛语》卷五: 宁为有瑕玉,不作无瑕石。
Misattributed, Chinese
Source: Magic Strikes
“Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free.”
Song lyrics, Bringing It All Back Home (1965), Mr. Tambourine Man
“Diamonds are a girl's best friend.”
Source: The Songs of Jule Styne
“Money cannot buy health, but I'd settle for a diamond-studded
wheelchair.”
Source: Cider With Rosie
“I've never seen anyone get so excited over books before. You'd think they were diamonds.”
Source: Clockwork Angel
Source: Lover Revealed
Source: Light on Life: The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace, and Ultimate Freedom, p. 27
“I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck.”
“What wretched poverty of language! To compare stars to diamonds!”
Source: Flaubert in Egypt: A Sensibility on Tour
“Whether we fall by ambition, blood, or lust,
Like diamonds, we are cut with our own dust.”
Act V, scene v.
Duchess of Malfi (1623)
Source: The Last Book in the Universe
“They moved together, blue diamonds on a green field.”
Source: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
Source: Moon Crossing Bridge
"America's Medieval Women," Harper's Magazine (August 1938)
"The Diamond As Big As The Ritz"
Quoted, Tales of the Jazz Age (1922)
Source: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
Source: Interview with the Vampire
Source: Adverbs (2006), Truly
Context: If you follow the diamond in my mother's ring from Africa to Germany to California to Arizona to Wisconsin, in the heel of a grandmother, in the beak of a magpie, in the gravel of the path, in someone else's novel, in the center of the earth where the volcanoes are from, you would forget the miracle, the reason diamonds end up in people's fingers in the first place. it is not the diamonds or the birds, the people or the potatoes, it is not any of the nouns. The miracle is the adverbs, the way things are done. It is the way love gets done despite every catastrophe.
"Still I Rise"
And Still I Rise (1978)
“No matter what you wear… to me, you will always have diamonds on the soles of your shoes.”
Source: Lover Avenged
“If God wanted us to bend over he would put diamonds on the floor.”
„I'm Jewish. I don't work out.."
As quoted in Dick Enberg's Humorous Quotes for All Occasions (2000), p. 101
Variant: I'm Jewish. I don't work out. If God had wanted us to bend over, he would have put diamonds on the floor.
“Tears could not be equal, if I wept diamonds from the skies.
Jenks (Black Magic Sanction)”
Source: Black Magic Sanction
“Shall we go, you and I, while we can? Through… the transitive nightfall of diamonds”
"Dark Star"
Song lyrics, (1969)
Source: Tarzan of the Apes (1912), Ch. 13 : His Own Kind
1980's, I don't necessarily desire a perfect photography,' 1981
1 July 1748
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)
ABC Radio interview, March 5, 2007.
Source: Revelation Space (2000), Chapter 37 (p. 554).
Letter to Richard Watson Dixon (17 October 1881)
Letters, etc
"The Star," from Original Poems for Infant Minds (1804).
Sultãn Ahmad Shãh I Walî Bahmanî (AD 1422-1435) Kullum (Maharashtra)
Tãrîkh-i-Firishta
Source: Framley Parsonage (1861), Ch. 21
Source: Soul Curry for You and Me: An Empowering Philosophy that Can Enrich Your Life, P. 21-22.
Source: Stamping Butterflies (2004), Chapter 25 (p. 157)
http://espn.go.com/classic/biography/s/Kwan_Michelle.html
On the engagement ring he gave to Kate Middleton, which had been his mother's engagement ring.
First post-engagement interview (2010)
“you're not the only one that's tried to make a coal into a diamond.”
Clara
Song lyrics, Anywhere but Here (1997)
Extract from 'Powers of Thirteen'(1983)
Poetry Quotes
In "Data Is Forever: The Engagement Gift I Gave" https://medium.com/@holden0/data-is-forever-the-engagement-gift-i-gave-123e75e1ca71, July 2016
Song lyrics, The Times They Are A-Changin (1964), Boots of Spanish Leather
