A virtue to be serviceable must, like gold, be alloyed with some commoner, but more durable alloy.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Say a piece of pottery is broken, and it's fixed, and they use gold in the adhesive and in the sealant. It becomes more precious than it was before it was broken in the first place.
As a precious metal, silver is also money.
Gold and silver, like other commodities, have an intrinsic value, which is not arbitrary, but is dependent on their scarcity, the quantity of labour bestowed in procuring them, and the value of the capital employed in the mines which produce them.
Everything has its limit - iron ore cannot be educated into gold.
They wonder much to hear that gold, which in itself is so useless a thing, should be everywhere so much esteemed, that even men for whom it was made, and by whom it has its value, should yet be thought of less value than it is.
Just like gold, which has to weather very high temperatures to achieve the sheen and shine it finally gets, so also every person has to go through struggles in his life to achieve success.
In a way, the sense of quality has improved, the status symbol of the small things is gone, and it is acceptable to use stainless steel, even if the neighbour uses silver.
Gold medals aren't really made of gold. They're made of sweat, determination, and a hard-to-find alloy called guts.
Gold is a great thing to sew into your garments if you're a Jewish family in Vienna in 1939, but I think civilized people don't buy gold, they invest in productive businesses.
Gold, on the contrary, though of little use compared with air or water, will exchange for a great quantity of other goods.