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

The ruby encloses the brilliant red of the clouds of evening… – Charles Blanc, Art in Ornament and Dress, 1875, translated from French

How much art and science, and what attention, what care is necessary to render the sun-beams which are imprisoned in a tiny polyhedron of pure carbon, brilliant and sparkling! – Charles Blanc, Art in Ornament and Dress, 1875, translated from French

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