Gold hath no lustre of its own.
It shines by temperate use alone. [ Francis ]

It is liberty alone that gives the flower
Of fleeting life its lustre and perfume;
And we are weeds without it. [ Cowper ]

Affliction is the good man's shining scene;
Prosperity conceals his brightest ray,
As night to stars, woe lustre gives to man. [ Young ]

The mind, relaxing into needful sport,
Should turn to writers of an abler sort.
Whose wit well managed, and whose classic style,
Give truth a lustre and make wisdom smile. [ Cowper ]

No radiant pearl which crested fortune wears,
No gem that, twinkling, hangs from beauty's ears,
Not the bright stars which night's blue arch adorn,
Nor rising suns that gild the vernal morn.
Shine with such lustre as the tear that breaks
For other's woe, down virtue's manly cheeks. [ Darwin ]

The best metals lose their lustre, unless brightened by use. [ Proverb ]

Where such radiant lights have shone, no wonder if her cheeks be grown sunburnt with lustre of their own. [ John Cleaveland ]

Beauty has no lustre except when it gleams through the crystal web that purity's fine fingers weave for it. [ Maturin ]

Nobody contents himself with rough diamonds, or wears them so. When polished and set, then they give a lustre. [ Locke ]

Truth, justice and reason, lose all their force and all their lustre when they are not accompanied by agreeable manners. [ James Thomson ]

Garments will fall to pieces, jewels and gold will lose something of their lustre, but the fame that great poems acquire will last through all time. [ Ovid ]

Rising genius always shoots forth its rays from among clouds and vapors, but these will gradually roll away and disappear as it ascends to its steady and meridian lustre. [ Washington Irving ]

A nobleness and elevation of mind, together with firmness of constitution, gives lustre and dignity to the aspect, and makes the soul, as it were, shine through the body. [ Jeremy Collier ]

The diamond is more valuable than any other stone, and vastly superior to all others in lustre and beauty; as also in hardness, which renders it more durable and lasting. [ Woodward ]

Winckelmann wished to live with a work of art as a friend. The saying is true of pen and pencil. Fresh lustre shoots from Lycidas in a twentieth perusal. The portraits of Clarendon are mellowed by every year of reflection. [ Willmott ]

It is quite deplorable to see how many rational creatures, or at least who are thought so, mistake suffering for sanctity, and think a sad face and a gloomy habit of mind propitious offerings to that Deity whose works are all light and lustre and harmony and loveliness. [ Lady Morgan ]