‘Glisters’, despite its Shakespearean authority, is now less often found than ‘glitters’. The variant form illustrated in quots. 1773 and 1987 is also common. L. non omne quod nitet aurum est, not all that shines is gold.
Nis hit nower neh gold al that ter [there] schineth.
[c 1220 Hali Meidenhad (EETS) ii.]
But al thyng which that shineth as the gold Nis nat gold, as that I have herd it told.
[c 1390 Chaucer Canon's Yeoman's Tale l. 962]
All that glisters is not gold, Often have you heard that told.
[1596 Shakespeare Merchant of Venice ii. vii. 65]
All is not Gold which glittereth.
[c 1628 W. Drummond Works (1711) 222]
All is not gold that glitters. Pleasure seems sweet, but proves a glass of bitters [bitter-tasting medicine].
[1773 D. Garrick in Goldsmith She stoops to Conquer (Prologue)]
I wished to put you on your guard. It is an old saying that ‘all is not gold that glitters’.
[1847 C. Brontë Jane Eyre II. ix.]
All that glitters is not gold.
[1880 Dict. English Proverbs (Asprey Reference Library) 39]
All that glitters is not gold. ‥Every bird who calls himself an American doesn't happen to be one.
[1933 E. B. Black Ravenelle Riddle iv.]
A young woman, perhaps grasping the unseemly spectacle of it all, suggested that all that glitters was not gold.
[1980 Times 19 Jan. 18]
The old saw ‘all is not gold that glitters’ still holds true despite its standing as a platitude.
[1987 D. Fiske Murder Bound (1989) ii. 11]
In the volatile world of jewellery investment, all that glisters is not gold.
[1998 Country Life 22 Jan. 50 (caption)]
Related to: appearance, deceptive
Bibliography of major proverb collections and works cited from modern editions is available here.
