Word order when combining "all" and "not"?

Question

There's an old saying that goes back to the time of Shakespeare: "All that glitters is not gold".  Tolkien reversed it in his "Lord of the Rings" books, writing: "All that is gold does not glitter". I'm curious about the choice of word order in such a phrase.  As I see it, there's two meanings you could (hypothetically) want to express with such a phrase.

-Every object which satisfies property A (glitters) fails to satisfy property B (is gold).

or

-There exist objects which satisfy property A (glitters) but fail to satisfy property B (is gold).  

If I just heard the sentence "All that is A is not B" in isolation, I would have assumed the former meaning.  But it's pretty clear in this case that the latter is what is intended.  So why word it this way instead of "Not all that glitters is gold"?

ioreth · Accepted Answer

Since it's from the long lay about Aragorn, and he's rough looking on the outside, yet hidden Royalty on the inside.....just a clever play on a more commonly known phrase, made to fit the sitch.
My bugaboo is the misquoting on bumper stickers the next line "not all who wander are lost"...yeesh..
Not all THOSE who wander are lost....

? · Answer

The whole expression is conventionally (and thus unthinkingly) given the second meaning, even though grammatically the first interpretation is the correct one. It also conveys truth, as gold does not in fact glitter.

The conventional interpretation is then taken metaphorically, to illustrate that fine first impressions can be deceptive.

Others have already explained the conventional origin of the (objectively false) wording.

Adrienne M · Answer

its not as perfect as it seems at first glance, kinda relating to all the money in the world cant buy happiness

? · Answer

You answered it in your first line, 'Shakespeare' (old English.)

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Word order when combining "all" and "not"?

4 Answers