Robert Palmer rephrased it years later as “A pretty face don’t mean no pretty heart.” ;o)

P.S. *Careful* thinkers, e.g. people with I.Q.s of 163 and ex-English majors, will understand that “all” in this sentence is not synonymous with everything – i.e., if it glitters it isn’t gold; rather, “all” in this sentence is used in a way that reworded would be stated thusly: just because it glitters doesn’t mean that it is gold. Hence, if it doesn’t NECESSARILY mean that it is gold, then it follows that sometimes it WILL be gold; therefore, stated as such it is a commonly accepted truth, and consequently qualifies as an aphorism. And if that’s not enough hot-air puffery for you, Master Jedi, blow it out your pseudo-intellect. Or perhaps it’s overactive but inappropriately applied intellect. Either way, parting is such sweet sorrow – NOT. :o))

All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring;

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be king.

The poem appears twice in the The Lord of the Rings’ first book, The Fellowship of the Ring. Firstly, it appears in Gandalf’s letter to the hobbits in Bree, before they know that Strider (Aragorn) is the subject of the verse. It is repeated by Bilbo at the Council of Elrond. He whispers to Frodo that he wrote it many years before, when Aragorn first revealed who he was.

In Peter Jackson’s adaptation of The Lord of the Rings for film, the poem appears in The Return of the King, when Arwen recites the last four lines of the poem as her father Elrond prepares to reforge the shards of Narsil for Aragorn. In the 1981 BBC radio dramatisation, the entire poem is heard in its original context, the letter left at Bree by Gandalf.

The theme of the poem is appearance vs reality. The first line is a rearrangement of the proverb All that glitters is not gold: Aragorn is vastly more important than he looks. The second line emphasises the importance of the Rangers, suspiciously viewed as wanderers or vagabonds by those the Rangers actually protect from evil. Lines three and four emphasise endurance, while five and six emphasise renewal. Line seven refers to the sword Narsil. Line eight predicts Aragorn’s rise to be king of kingless Gondor and vanished Arnor.

Older editions of The Lord of the Rings indexed the poem as The Riddle of Strider. From the 50th anniversary edition of 2005 on, the new, enlarged index by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull list it as All that is gold does not glitter.

…your phrase can correctly be described as an axiom, a maxim, an adage, and a proverb. It would positively NOT be correct to describe it as an aphorism. To explain this, I must clarify the generally accepted meaning of the adage ‘all that is gold does not glitter’. As has been correctly stated, this is J.R.R. Tolkien’s re-working of an adage that Shakespeare put into the mouth or mouths of one or more of his characters. Whichever version one chooses to examine, whether glitter be read as glister, or gold comes after glitter etc., its meaning is that not everything that *seems* to be good, beautiful, worthy, valuable, et al., is necessarily so. Note that this can refer not only to things looked at, but also to things heard, smelt, etc. (since sounds can be appealing yet not be indicative of safety, trustworthiness, honesty; and smells can be sweet, yet not proof of safety i.e. being non-toxic).

Now, an aphorism is a short expression of a general truth. While many people might interpret the above adage as being a general truth, on closer analysis it is obviously not generally true that ‘*all* that is gold does not glitter’ since gold itself glitters and *is* gold. Clearly, there are many glittering things that *are* gold i.e. good, worthy, valuable, etc. Thus, your adage cannot *correctly* be called an aphorism.

An axiom is a generally accepted principle *sanctioned by experience*; since the principle that your adage embodies is understood by many *and* the experience of many has demonstrated it to be true e.g. many people can see the believeability of the witch’s apple in Snow White that looked good to eat but was poisoned, the phrase can correctly be described as an adage.

A maxim is a brief expression of a general truth, principle or rule of conduct; a word similar to adage but which has a wider application, part of its definition clearly equates to that of adage, so this too can correctly describe *your* adage.

However, the *most accurate* correct description of your adage would be that of proverb, which is a short and often highly condensed saying, *especially with bold imagery*, embodying some ‘commonplace’ fact of *experience* (which latter equates with the definitions of the words adage and maxim).

Your given adage could also be described as ‘a corruption of Shakespeare’s work’ or as ‘an improvement upon Shakespeare’s work’ et al.

P.S. I repeat that most people probably *would* think ‘All that is gold does not glitter’ is a general truth (and thus an aphorism) because they know it isn’t meant to be taken literally i.e. the *meaning* the reader takes away is *not exactly what is written*. However, in defining (as an axiom or aphorism) the words themselves (as opposed to the meaning people derive from them) it cannot be considered as being generally true.

It means that appearances can be deceptive so although gold may ‘glister’ so do other shiny metals that may be mistaken for gold and thus be used to deceive.

The original phrase comes from Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” and it’s glisters not glitters.

The meaning of the saying lies in geology in that their are minerals that look like gold but have no value

and only on closer inspection can one determine the difference “Fool’s Gold or Iron Pyrite” is the one that most resembles Gold in the ground

P.S. The real saying is: “All that glitters is not gold.”