Gold

Socrates. [...] I think, indeed, that [Hesiod] calls [dæmons] a "golden race," not as naturally composed from gold, but as being beautiful and good: but I infer this, from his denominating our race an "iron" one.

(Plato, Cratylus 397e)

---

When asked how men might live most virtuously and most justly, Thales said, "If we never do ourselves what we blame in others."

(Diogenes Laertius, The Lives and Opinions of the Eminent Philosophers I ii "Thales" §19)

---

One wonders if the "golden race" is "golden" because they practice the "golden rule?"

Thales on Suicide

Thales, one of the Seven Sages of Greece and the teacher of Pythagoras, held that there was no difference between life and death. Once, somebody who was dismissive of philosophy asked him, "Why don't you kill yourself, then?"

Thales replied, "Because it wouldn't make a difference."

On Light, Again

One of my best friends told me that he was standing next to a telephone when suddenly an angel walked in through the closed window. It had a nebulous, luminous appearance. The angel said a few comforting words and then disappeared again. That was very important to him for at that moment he feared for his life. This friend said to me: "Now I understand why angels are shown with wings: it is their radiance."

(H. C. Moolenburgh, A Handbook of Angels I, emphasis mine)