“
A road need not be paved in gold to find treasures at its end.
”
”
Alan Brennert (Honolulu)
“
Romanians have a saying, 'Not every dog has a bagel on its tail.' It means that not all streets are paved with gold. When I began my career, I just wanted to do cartwheels.
”
”
Nadia Comaneci (Letters to a Young Gymnast)
“
When the immigrants came to America, they thought the streets would be paved with gold. But when they got here, they realized three things: 1. The streets were not paved with gold. 2. The streets were not paved at all. 3. They were the ones expected to do the paving.
”
”
Daniel Nayeri (Everything Sad Is Untrue (a true story))
“
A Skalan trader tried to tell me the streets of his cities were paved with gold," Alec went on. "I didn't believe him, though. He was the one who tried to buy me from father. I was only eight or nine. I could never figure out what he wanted me for."
"Really?" Seregil lifted a noncommittal eyebrow.
”
”
Lynn Flewelling (Luck in the Shadows (Nightrunner, #1))
“
The sidewalks were haunted by dust
ghosts all night as the furnace wind summoned them up,
swung them about, and gentled them down in a warm spice on
the lawns. Trees, shaken by the footsteps of late-night strol-
lers, sifted avalanches of dust. From midnight on, it seemed a
volcano beyond the town was showering red-hot ashes every-
where, crusting slumberless night watchmen and irritable
dogs. Each house was a yellow attic smoldering with spon-
taneous combustion at three in the morning.
Dawn, then, was a time where things changed element for
element. Air ran like hot spring waters nowhere, with no
sound. The lake was a quantity of steam very still and deep
over valleys of fish and sand held baking under its serene
vapors. Tar was poured licorice in the streets, red bricks were
brass and gold, roof tops were paved with bronze. The high-
tension wires were lightning held forever, blazing, a threat
above the unslept houses.
The cicadas sang louder and yet louder.
The sun did not rise, it overflowed.
”
”
Ray Bradbury (Dandelion Wine)
“
Oh, London is a fine town,
A very famous city,
Where all the streets are paved with gold,
And all the maidens pretty,
--G. Colman (the Younger)
”
”
Mark Williams
“
As I came up from the galley, the sun was going down into the ocean in a blaze that paved the western sea with gold like the streets of Heaven. I stopped for a moment, just a moment, transfixed by the sight. It had happened many times before, but it always took me by surprise. Always in the midst of great stress, wading waist-deep in trouble and sorrow, as doctors do, I would glance out a window, open a door, look into a face, and there it would be, unexpected and unmistakable. A moment of peace. The
”
”
Diana Gabaldon (Voyager (Outlander, #3))
“
There weren't really any new immigrants in Miller's Valley at all. You could tell by their last names that people who lived in the area were originally from Germany or Poland or some of the Slavic countries, but they'd been Americans long enough to have flat vowels and made-up minds. When I got older I realized that the majority of people in Miller's Valley were the most discontented kind of Americans, working people whose situations hadn't risen or fallen over generations, but who still carried a little bit of those streets-paved-with-gold illusions and so were always annoyed that the streets were paved with tar. If they were paved at all.
”
”
Anna Quindlen (Miller's Valley)
“
They're kicking us out saying it's time to close
We're leaning on each other try'na beat the cold
Carry your shoes and I give you my coat Walking these streets like they're paved gold
Anymore excuses is not to go
Neither one of us want to take that taxi home
Singing our hearts, standing on chairs
Spending the time like we were millionaires
Laughing our heads off, the two of us stared
Spending the time like we were millionaires
Lost my heart and I hope to die
Seeing that sunlight hit your eyes
Been up all night but you still look amazing to me
Half the time of the night you only dream
About if God came down he could take me now
Cause in my mind, yeah we will always be
”
”
The Script
“
The brown autumn came. Out of doors, it brought to the fields the prodigality of the golden harvest, —to the forest, revelations of light,—and to the sky, the sharp air, the morning mist, the red clouds at evening. Within doors, the sense of seclusion, the stillness of closed and curtained windows, musings by the fireside, books, friends, conversation, and the long, meditative evenings. To the farmer, it brought surcease of toil,—to the scholar, that sweet delirium of the brain which changes toil to pleasure. It brought the wild duck back to the reedy marshes of the south; it brought the wild song back to the fervid brain of the poet. Without, the village street was paved with gold; the river ran red with the reflection of the leaves. Within, the faces of friends brightened the gloomy walls; the returning footsteps of the long-absent gladdened the threshold; and all the sweet amenities of social life again resumed their interrupted reign.
”
”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Kavanagh)
“
When I got older I realized that the majority of people in Miller’s Valley were the most discontented kind of Americans, working people whose situations hadn’t risen or fallen over generations, but who still carried a little bit of those streets-paved-with-gold illusions and so were always annoyed that the streets were paved with tar. If they were paved at all. Maybe
”
”
Anna Quindlen (Miller's Valley)
“
If anyone had asked him that morning concerning his idea of Heaven, he never would have dreamed of describing a place of gold-paved streets, crystal pillars, jewelled gates, and thrones of ivory. These things were beyond the man's comprehension and he would not have admired or felt at home in such magnificence if it had been materialized for him. He would have told you that a floor of last year's brown leaves, studded with myriad flower faces, big, bark-encased pillars of a thousand years, jewels on every bush, shrub, and tree, and tilting thrones on which gaudy birds almost burst themselves to voice the joy of life, while their bright-eyed little mates peered questioningly at him over nest rims——he would have told you that Medicine Woods on a damp, sunny May morning was Heaven.
”
”
Gene Stratton-Porter (The Harvester)
“
The whole world was dancing and so were we. We exchanged another smile and I marvelled how, in all the stories of the gold-paved Mei Guo and the dangerous Mei Guo, no one in China knew about the lights of America, about how they were so delightful that they could stop us in the middle of the street, in the middle of our lives and our worries, in the middle of strangers living stranger lives, all just to fill us with music and hope.
”
”
Qian Julie Wang (Beautiful Country)
“
I am an urchin, standing in the cold, elbowed aside by the glossy rich visitors in their fur coats and ostentatious jewellery, being fussed into the hotel by pompous-looking doormen.
'No problem. I'd better get home, actually Mr – Gustav. A drink is very tempting, but maybe not such a good idea after all.' I pat my pockets. 'And I'm skint.'
'Pavements not paved with gold yet, eh?' He moves on along the facade of the grand hotel to the corner, and waits. He's staring not back at me but down St James Street. I wage a little war with myself. He's a stranger, remember.
The newspaper headlines, exaggerated by the time they reach the office of Jake's local rag: Country girl from the sticks raped and murdered in London by suave conman.
Even Poppy would be wagging her metaphorical finger at me by now. Blaming herself for not being there, looking out for me. But we're out in public here. Lots of people around us. He's charming. He's incredibly attractive. He's got a lovely deep, well spoken voice. And he's an entrepreneur who must be bloody rich if he owns more than one house. What the hell else am I going to do with myself when everyone else is out having fun?
One thing I won't tell him is that my pockets might be empty, but my bank account is full.
'One drink. Then I must get back.'
He doesn't answer or protest, but with a courtly bow he crooks his elbow and escorts me down St James. We turn right and into the far more subtle splendour of Dukes Hotel.
'Dress code?' I ask nervously, wiping my feet obediently on the huge but welcoming doormat and drifting ahead of him into the smart interior where domed and glassed corridors lead here and there. The foyer smells of mulled wine and candles and entices you to succumb to its perfumed embrace.
”
”
Primula Bond
“
But Lucy liked to hear about the next territory, and the next one, even farther East. Those flat plains where water is abundant and green stretches in every direction. Where towns have shade trees and paved roads, houses of wood and glass. Where instead of wet and dry there are seasons with names like song: autumn, winter, summer, spring. Where stores carry cloth in every color, candy in every shape. Civilization holds the word civil in its heart and so Lucy imagines kids who dress nice and speak nicer, storekeepers who smile, doors held open instead of slammed, and everything—handkerchiefs, floors, words—clean. A new place, where two girls might be wholly unremarkable. In Lucy’s fondest dream, the one she doesn’t want to wake from, she braves no dragons and tigers. Finds no gold. She sees wonders from a distance, her face unnoticed in the crowd. When she walks down the long street that leads her home, no one pays her any mind at
”
”
C Pam Zhang (How Much of These Hills Is Gold)
“
The state arbitrarily set the mortgage interest rate at 8.5 percent—below the prime rate of 9 or so percent—so banks could make more money out of state. The bottom line for financial institutions is profit.
”
”
Ken Auletta (The Streets Were Paved with Gold)
“
The reality is that most people of color learn early in America that we will have to work twice as hard to get half as far, and when we fail, no one will help us fall up.
Immigrants, people of color, and women learn early that in order to make it in Amreeka you have to daft punk it through life. You have to do everything harder, better, faster, stronger, and smarter. Those are just the rules. The streets of Amreeka aren't paved with gold; they're paved with blood. As an immigrant, you'll take a beating but you'll be like Rick Ross and keep hustling. if Bob works eight hours a day, you work ten. If Samantha works late on Friday, then you work on Saturday. You go twenty feet just to get to ten feet.
”
”
Wajahat Ali (Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American)
“
As I came up from the galley, the sun was going down into the ocean in a blaze that paved the western sea with gold like the streets of Heaven. I stopped for a moment, just a moment, transfixed by the sight. It had happened many times before, but it always took me by surprise. Always in the midst of great stress, wading waist-deep in trouble and sorrow, as doctors do, I would glance out a window, open a door, look into a face, and there it would be, unexpected and unmistakable. A moment of peace. The light spread from the sky to the ship, and the great horizon was no longer a blank threat of emptiness, but the habitation of joy. For a moment, I lived in the center of the sun, warmed and cleansed, and the smell and sight of sickness fell away; the bitterness lifted from my heart. I never looked for it, gave it no name; yet I knew it always, when the gift of peace came. I stood quite still for the moment that it lasted, thinking it strange and not strange that grace should find me here, too. Then the light shifted slightly and the moment passed, leaving me as it always did, with the lasting echo of its presence.
”
”
Diana Gabaldon (Voyager (Outlander, #3))
“
The streets of America may not have been paved with gold, but they were cobbled in middle-class dreams.
”
”
Regina Lee Blaszczyk (American Consumer Society, 1865-2005: From Hearth to HDTV)
“
Worst Comes To Worst"
(feat. Guru)
[Babu mixing]
"Worst come to worst my peoples come first"
"Worst...come.....to worst"
"Worst come to worst my peoples come first"
"Worst come...to...worst"
"Worst come to worst my peoples come first"
[Evidence talking]
Yeah
It's goin down y'all
That's Babu
Yo, some people got good friends, at night I live my life right
Intense, on the edge
On the wild, I'm from the group where friction leads to fire
Stack your bricks, the time is take your pick
Do or don't, the track - Alchemist
My life is good, I got my peeps in the mix, so...
"Worst come to worst my people come first"
[Iriscience]
I got worldwide family all over the earth
And I worry 'bout 'em all for whatever it's worth
From the birth to the hearse, the streets, the guns burst
Words I disperse are here to free minds
And if mine are needy I need to feed mine
"When worst come to worst..."
[Evidence]
Set up shop and write a verse
Actually (what?), that's best come to best
My lyrics take care of me, they therapy
Get shit off my chest
Extra stress, three-four over the score
Different patterns of rhymin prepare me for war
So next time you see us we'll be deadly on tour
[Babu mixing]
"Oh, when you need me"
"Worst come to worst my peoples come first"
[Guru talking]
Word up, if worst comes to worst, I make whole crews disperse
You know it's family first
Gifted Unlimited with Dilated Peoples
Babu, Evidence, Iriscience
And a shout out to my man Alchemist on the trizzack
"Oh, when you need me"
"Worst come to worst my peoples come first"
[Iriscience]
I'm a glutton for the truth, even though truth hurts
I've studied with my peoples on streets and in church
We make it hard when we go on first
Long road, honor of the samurai code
These California streets ain't paved with gold
Worst comes to worst
"Worst come to worst my people come first"
[Evidence]
Uh, I got them back, at the end of the day
We could go our seperate ways but the songs remains, it won't change
Got my target locked at range
I might switch gears but first I switch lanes
Without my people I got nothin to gain
That's why...
"Worst come to worst my people come first"
[Iriscience]
Special victims unit, catalyst for movement
Creates to devastate, since '84 show improvement
Definitely Dilated Peoples comes first
Cross-trainin spar, we raise the bar
And we put it in your ear no matter who you are
[Babu mixing]
"Oh, when you need me"
"Worst come to worst my peoples come first"
"Worst....come...worst my peoples come first"
"Worst...worst....worst....come to worst my peoples come first"
"...my..my...my peoples come first
"Oh, when you need me
”
”
Dilated Peoples
“
People imagined the Cockaigne ("Land of Plenty") menu as full of delectable meats such as hare, deer and wild boar . all which let themselves be caught. Grilled fish leaped out of rivers of wine onto your plate. Roast geese waddled down streets paved in pastry, just begging to be eaten. Flying pigs and buttered birds fell from the sky like rain, directly into people's mouths. People lived in edible houses made of pancake roofs and walls made of sausage.
”
”
Bob Eckstein (The History of the Snowman: From the Ice Age to the Flea Market)
“
Only in America are the streets paved with gold.”)
”
”
Steve Blank (The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Startups That Win)
“
Perhaps he’d been in heaven. Perhaps he’d been playing on streets paved with gold. Or, more likely, playing Xbox with Jesus. Only
”
”
J.R. Rain (Moon Child (Vampire for Hire, #4))
“
He had not come to the United States to prosper; revolting against the very idea of prosperity had been what had pushed him to America in the first place. Visions of gold-paved streets never lit up his dreams, and he was deaf to the gospel of thrift and industry; he preached, rather, that all property is theft. There was nothing in common between him and his more mercantile-minded compatriots, and he made sure to stress this at all times.
”
”
Hernan Diaz (Trust)
“
Jensen, R. (2002). "No Irish Need Apply": A Myth of Victimization. Journal of Social History,36(2), 405-429. Retrieved August 26, 2021
The Irish American community harbors a deeply held belief that it was the victim of systematic job discrimination in America, and that the discrimination was done publicly in highly humiliating fashion through signs that announced “Help Wanted: No Irish Need Apply.” This “NINA” slogan could have been a metaphor for their troubles—akin to tales that America was a “golden mountain” or had “streets paved with gold.” But the Irish insist that the signs really existed and prove the existence of widespread discrimination and prejudice.
The fact that Irish vividly remember “NINA” signs is a curious historical puzzle. There are no contemporary or retrospective accounts of a specific sign at a specific location. No particular business enterprise is named as a culprit. No historian, archivist, or museum curator has ever located one; no photograph or drawing exists. No other ethnic groups complained about being singled out by comparable signs. Only Irish Catholics have reported seeing the sign in America—no Protestant, no Jew, no non-Irish Catholic has reported seeing one. This is especially strange since signs were primarily directed toward these others: the signs that said employment was available here and invited Yankees, French-Canadians, Italians and any other non-Irish to come inside and apply. The business literature, both published and unpublished, never mentions NINA or any policy remotely like it. The newspapers and magazines are silent. There is no record of an angry youth tossing a brick through a window that held such a sign. Have we not discovered all of the signs of an urban legend?
The NINA slogan seems to have originated in England, probably after the 1798 Irish rebellion. By the 1820s it was a cliché in upper and upper middle-class London that some fussy housewives refused to hire Irish and had even posted NINA signs in their windows. …
Irish Americans have all heard about them—and remember elderly relatives insisting they existed. The myth had “legs”: people still believe it, even scholars. The late Tip O’Neill remembered the signs from his youth in Boston in 1920s; Senator Ted Kennedy reported the most recent sighting, telling the Senate during a civil rights debate that he saw them when growing up.
”
”
Richard Jensen
“
The two women and their single shadow left the palace on a street paved with gold. They walked until the gold turned to dirt, and they kept walking. The road was long and straight. No sound but the sound of pebbles shifting beneath their feet. Sometimes one would carry the baby. Sometimes the other would carry the baby. They did not have water or anything else. They walked. They were two women with one live child and one ghost child. They were two women with four children. They were three women with six children, nine women with eighteen children, fifty women with a hundred children, five hundred women with a thousand children, their single shadow before them.
”
”
Helen Phillips (The Need)
“
When you’re traveling down a path paved with gold, the last thing you want to pass is a homeless encampment, a reminder of the stark poverty that still exists outside the tech bubble.
”
”
Vivian Ho (Those Who Wander: America's Lost Street Kids)
“
Entre todo lo bello que trae consigo ser joven, los sueños son lo más importante
”
”
Woo-Choong Kim (Every Street Is Paved With Gold: The Road to Real Success)
“
شما احتمال دارد که در مسابقهای به وسیله حیله و تقلب برنده شوید ولی در نبرد زندگی عاقبت مغلوب کسی خواهید شد که طبق قاعده و درست زندگی کردهاند.
”
”
کیم وو چونگ (Every Street Is Paved With Gold: The Road to Real Success)
“
He had been an army officer in Germany and had come to America when he heard that the streets were paved with gold. They weren't, so he became the head of a construction firm.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (Ham on Rye)
“
Selznick was of the new generation. Unlike Mayer and Goldwyn and Laemmle, he hadn’t sold buttons in Minsk or shirtwaists in Krakow on the narrowest of margins to leave the bosom of his family and endure weeks in steerage dreaming of streets paved with gold only to wash up in the shtetl-like tenements of the Lower East Side where daily he fought his neighbors, those same margins and the Italian rackets, earning a second fortune he used to bankroll a third and, as mere by-product, creating from the dusty foothills of West L.A. a gilded fiefdom called Hollywood.
”
”
Stewart O'Nan (West of Sunset)
“
According to lore, said one Italian immigrant, when they got here they found “the streets weren’t paved with gold, they weren’t paved at all, and I was expected to pave them.”14
”
”
David Paul Kuhn (The Hardhat Riot: Nixon, New York City, and the Dawn of the White Working-Class Revolution)
“
Well, as long as we’re on the subject of chickens… the word ‘heaven’ is like saying ‘chicken parts’—stirs up too many questions. Chicken parts gets people thinking beaks and gizzards and turning green. You say ‘heaven’ and you get people thinking pearly gates and streets paved in gold or whatever they were brought up on. It all gets in the way of the truth,” Nana explained.
”
”
Sheri Meshal (Swallowtail)
“
Into another city, not only Daniel, but all the children of God, from the least to greatest, from the lowest to highest, from first to last, are soon to enter; a city not merely sixty miles in circumference, but fifteen hundred miles; a city whose walls are not brick and bitumen, but precious stones and jasper; whose streets are not the stone-paved streets of Babylon, smooth and beautiful as they were, but transparent gold; whose river is not the mournful waters of the Euphrates, but the river of life; whose music is not the sighs and laments of broken-hearted captives, but the thrilling paeans of victory over death and the grave, [50] which ransomed multitudes shall raise; whose light is not the intermittent light of earth, but the unceasing and ineffable glory of God and the Lamb. Into this city they shall enter, not as captives entering a foreign land, but as exiles returning to their father's house; not as to a place where such chilling words as "bondage," "servitude," and "oppression," shall weigh down their spirits, but to one where the sweet words, "home," "freedom," "peace," "purity," "unutterable bliss," and "unending life," shall thrill their bosoms with delight forever and ever. Yea; our mouths shall be filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing, when the Lord shall turn again the captivity of Zion. Ps.126:1,2; Rev.21:1-27.
”
”
Uriah Smith (Daniel and the Revelation)