The phrase " All that glitters is not gold" emphasizes the fact that everything that appears to be beautiful and attractive may not be so. Many things that have a fancy exterior and shine like gold may not be as valuable. This holds true for people too. Many people appear to be beautiful and friendly but in reality they may not be so.
I will be giving my experience on this,so you can understand more and learn from it
The myself and my friend lived in a village. It was for the first time that we were travelling to the city. We were quite excited about our trip. We had planned to visit many places within the city and do a lot of shopping. Anil (my friend)especially wanted to purchase a watch. She had been saving for it since a long time. She was discussing about her plan of purchasing a watch from the city with me just when the passenger sitting next to us overheard our conversation.
He took out two sparkling watches from his bag and showed it to us. Anil was enticed by the beauty of those watches. She decided to purchase one of them at once. However, i was a bit sceptic about her decision. I could not trust the man selling the watches as he said that the glistening strap of those watches was made of gold. He charged heavily for the watches. I warned Anil not to purchase the watch from the man as i suspected he was lying. However, Anil was so attracted to the beauty of the watch that he did not listen to me. She happily handed a large sum of money to the stranger in exchange for a watch.
Few days later, the watch stopped working. Anil took it to the nearby shop to get it repaired. It was then that he learned that the watch was made of an ordinary material that only sparkled like gold but was not precious at all. She realized that all her money had gone down the drain and felt extremely disappointed. She regretted taking hasty decision even after being warned by me.
Since then, Anil took all the decisions very cautiously after assessing all the pros and cons. This is how each one of us should act in life as ‘all that glitters is not gold’.
Phrases Similar to ‘All that Glitters is not Gold’
The phrase, ‘all that glitters is not gold’ is an improvised version of the original saying, ‘all that glisters is not gold’ which appeared in Shakespeare’s popular play, The Merchant of Venice in the year 1596.Many similar phrases have been coined by various writers from time to time. For instance, Geoffrey Chaucer’s poem, The House of Fame’ included, ‘Hit is not al gold, that glareth’. The poem was published in the year 1380. Alian de Lille, the 12th century French theologian wrote, ‘Do not hold everything gold that shines like gold’. The Latin version of the phrase is ‘Non omne quod nitet aurum est’
Other similar phrases include, ‘appearances are deceptive’, ‘never judge by appearances’ and ‘never judge a book by its cover’. These are all used commonly and convey the same meaning however none is as popular as Shakespeare’s ‘all that glitters is not gold’.
This is a warning for each one of us especially for those who take hasty decisions just by looking at a thing, situation or person at the surface level. It is a warning for those who just look at the external beauty of things rather than analyzing their actual worth. This is because everything that is appealing to the eye may not be actually good. Just as there are many things that sparkle and shine but not all of them are as precious as gold.
We ought to select our actions carefully. Not everything we see appears in the real nature of the eyes.