The hues of the opal, the light of the diamond, are not to be seen if the eye is too near. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

The aquamarine… has the glassy tint of the waves of the sea. – Charles Blanc, Art in Ornament and Dress, 1875, translated from French

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