Flowers that are so pathetic in their beauty, frail as the clouds, and in their coloring as gorgeous as the heavens, had through thousands of years been the heritage of children – honored as the jewelry of God…. – Thomas De Quincey

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

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

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