“Gold’s father is dirt, yet it regards itself as noble”

“Gold’s father is dirt, yet it regards itself as noble” is listed as a Yiddish proverb on many websites. The saying means that, regardless of birth, one can make something of one’s self.
   
The saying has been cited in print since at least 1967.
 
     
26 February 1967, Boston (MA) Globe, “Lights, Action… Murder!” by Mycroft Holmes, pg. A28:
LUST FOR MURDER, by Henry Klinger; Trident; 153 pp.; $3.95.
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Gold’s father is dirt yet it regards itself as noble.
 
Google Books
A Treasury of Jewish Quotations
By Joseph L. Baron
New York, NY: J. Aronson
1985
Pg. 159:
Gold’s father is dirt, yet it regards itself as noble.
Proverb (Yiddish).
   
Google Books
The Routledge Book of World Proverbs
By Jon R. Stone
New York, NY: Routledge
2006
Pg. 188:
Gold’s father is dirt, yet it regards itself as noble. (Yiddish)
 
The Davian Letter: Daily Investment Newsletter
Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011
Fool’s Gold
By Dasan 888
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Gold reminds me of the dot-com stocks that never made any profits, but were expected to always go up.  You could always sell them to some other “greater fool.”  How much income does Gold generate?  What is its return on invested capital?  How do you value something that only has the value that some other sucker will buy it from you for a higher price?
 
“Gold’s father is dirt, yet it regards itself as noble.” –Yiddish proverb