There are many sham diamonds in this life which pass for real, and vice versa. – William Makepeace Thackeray

As though pure white snow flashed and sparkled with the color of bright ruddy wine, and was overcome by this radiance. – Author unknown, about opal

These words dropped into my childish mind as if you should accidentally drop a ring into a deep well. I did not think of them much at the time, but there came a day in my life when the ring was fished up out of the well, good as new. – Harriet Beecher Stowe, Old Town Folks, 1869