Quote:
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All that glisters is not gold.—William Shakespeare: Merchant of Venice
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Quote:
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"'Tis an old saying, the Devil lurks behind the cross. All is not gold that glitters," - Don Quixote, Miquel de Cervantes
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Tolkien did not invent this old saying, though usually it is seen in the forms above, implying that something that looks valuable may not be. Tolkien used a reverse order of the saying to imply that something that may look worthless (like a dirty, ol' ranger), may have hidden value.
But notice that they all use the same archaic sentence structure. I suppose you could say, "Not everything that looks like gold is really gold", but it wouldn't sound as pretty. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]