Quote Atlassourced quotes & context
Source identified
All that glisters is not gold.
Read & copy the quotation
“All that glisters is not gold.”

William Shakespeare

Download image (JPG)

Source
The Merchant of Venice
Date
c. 1596
Local voice
Textual source voice · Casket inscription, read by the Prince of Morocco
Meaning

Meaning of “All that glisters is not gold.”

Appearance can imitate value without possessing it, so the line encourages evidence and discernment before admiration or trust.

Source context

Where does it come from?

Act 2, Scene 7; the inscription warns against judging by outward appearance.

Primary / edition source ↗

Speaker context

Why the local voice matters

In The Merchant of Venice, Act 2, Scene 7, the Prince of Morocco reads the maxim from the scroll inside the golden casket. It is an embedded written source voice, not ordinary character-authored dialogue.

Customize your imageTen designs · Square or portrait · Preview and share
Themes

Ideas connected with this quotation

DecisionDeepShortTruthUnderstandingWisdom Quotes About Judgment & Living WellMaterialismPerspectiveRealityWords of Wisdom: Practical & Philosophical Counsel
Related quotations

Continue through nearby ideas

Source identified
To define is to limit.
Read & copy

“To define is to limit.”

Oscar Wilde · The Picture of Dorian Gray — 1891 edition · 1891
Voice: Fictional character · Lord Henry Wotton
Meaning & context

Definitions clarify ideas but can also narrow them, especially when a label is treated as the complete reality of a person or experience.

Source details

The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891 edition, Chapter 17; Lord Henry answers the Duchess of Monmouth’s question “What are you?” with “To define is to limit.”

↓ Download image (JPG)

Source identified
There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
Read & copy

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

William Shakespeare · Hamlet · c. 1600
Voice: Fictional character · Hamlet
Meaning & context

The line separates events from the judgments people place on them, a useful distinction for thinking about perception and response.

Source details

Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2; Hamlet says this to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern while explaining that Denmark feels like a prison to him. The line is dramatic dialogue, not a detached psychological proposition by Shakespeare.

↓ Download image (JPG)

Source identified
Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There’s no better rule.
Read & copy

“Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There’s no better rule.”

Charles Dickens · Great Expectations · 1861
Voice: Fictional character · Mr. Jaggers
Meaning & context

Appearances are weak evidence; better judgment comes from examining what can actually be supported.

Source details

Great Expectations (1861), global Chapter XL / Volume III Chapter I in the Chapman & Hall three-volume first book edition. Mr. Jaggers tells Pip “Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There’s no better rule” while insisting that he has stayed to the strict line of fact about Pip’s benefactor. Verified against the scan-backed Wikisource Volume III Chapter I transcription and cross-checked with Project Gutenberg #1400. This remains fictional legal dialogue and character method rather than a modern legal or scientific standard.

↓ Download image (JPG)

Source identified
Tell the truth or trump—but get the trick.
Read & copy

“Tell the truth or trump—but get the trick.”

Mark Twain · Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar · 1894
Voice: Epigraph / fictional source voice · Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar
Meaning & context

The joke turns moral advice into card-table strategy, making the line funny precisely because truth and tactical winning are compressed into one impossible-sounding rule.

Source details

Pudd’nhead Wilson, Chapter I epigraph; one of the fictional Calendar maxims Twain places before the chapter.

↓ Download image (JPG)