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Walter Raleigh
36 quotes
“Every fool knoweth that hatreds are the cinders of affection.”
Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) first seen 1593 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Sir Robert Cecil (10 May 1593)
“No man is wise or safe, but he that is honest.”
Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) first seen 1596 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Advice to the Earl of Rutland on his Travels (1596)
“If all the world and love were young, And truth in every shepherd's tongue, These pretty pleasures might me move To live with thee and be thy Love.But fading flowers in every field, To winter floods their treasures yield; A honey'd tongue, a heart of gall, Is Fancy's spring, but Sorrow's fall.”
Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) first seen 1599 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd (1599), st. 1–2
“Go, Soul, the body’s guest, Upon a thankless arrant: Fear not to touch the best; The truth shall be thy warrant: Go, since I needs must die, And give the world the lie.Say to the court, it glows. And shines like rotten wood; Say to the church, it shows What’s good, and doth no good: If church and court reply, Then give them both the lie.”
Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) first seen 1608 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Lie (1608)
“So when thou hast, as I Commanded thee, done blabbing — Although to give the lie Deserves no less than stabbing — Stab at thee he that will, No stab the soul can kill.”
Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) first seen 1608 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Lie (1608).
“[History] hath triumphed over time, which besides it nothing but eternity hath triumphed over.”
Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) first seen 1614 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The History of the World (1614), Preface
“Whosoever, in writing a modern history, shall follow truth too near the heels, it may happily strike out his teeth.”
Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) first seen 1614 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The History of the World (1614), Preface
“O eloquent, just, and mighty Death! whom none could advise, thou hast persuaded; what none hath dared, thou hast done; and whom all the world hath flattered, thou only hast cast out of the world and despised; thou hast drawn together all the far-stretched greatness, all the pride, cruelty, and ambition of man, and covered it all over with these two narrow words, Hic jacet [Here lies]!”
Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) said by 1618 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For whosoever commands the sea commands the trade; whosoever commands the trade of the world commands the riches of the world, and consequently the world itself.”
Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) said by 1618 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A prince of mean force ought not in any wise to adventure his estate upon one day's fight: for if he be victorious he gaineth nothing but glory; but if he lose, he is utterly ruined.”
Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) said by 1618 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Aphorisms of State (London: for Tho. Johnson, 1661), p. 101
“Our passions are most like to floods and streams; The shallow murmur, but the deep are dumb.”
Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) said by 1618 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Sir Walter Raleigh to the Queen (published 1655); alternately reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919) as: "Passions are likened best to floods and streams: The shallow murmur, but the deep are dumb" …
“Cowards fear to die; but courage stout, Rather than live in snuff, will be put out.”
Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) said by 1618 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the snuff of a candle the night before he died; Raleigh's Remains, p. 258, ed. 1661
“Silence in love bewrays more woe Than words, though ne’er so witty: A beggar that is dumb, you know, May challenge double pity.”
Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) said by 1618 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Silent Lover, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Also quoted by: Sir Walter Raleigh
“Fain would I, but I dare not; I dare, and yet I may not; I may, although I care not, for pleasure when I play not.”
Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) said by 1618 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Fain Would I, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Also quoted by: Sir Walter Raleigh
“Methought I saw the grave where Laura lay.”
Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) said by 1618 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Verses to Edmund Spenser, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919); Comparable to: "Methought I saw my late espoused saint", John Milton, Sonnet xxiii, and "Methought I saw the footsteps of a throne",…
Also quoted by: Sir Walter Raleigh
“Even such is time, that takes in trust Our youth, our joys, our all we have, And pays us but with age and dust; Who in the dark and silent grave, When we have wandered all our ways, Shuts up the story of our days. But from this earth, this grave, this dust, My God shall raise me up, I trust!”
Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) first seen 1618 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: His Own Epitaph, written the night before his execution (1618) and found in his Bible in the Gate-house at Westminster; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919) · "Even Such is Time" — Choir of Salisb…
Also quoted by: Sir Walter Raleigh
“Shall I, like an hermit, dwell On a rock or in a cell?”
Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) said by 1618 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Poem reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Also quoted by: Sir Walter Raleigh
“If she undervalue me, What care I how fair she be?”
Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) said by 1618 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Poem reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Compare: "If she be not so to me, / What care I how fair she be?", George Wither, The Shepherd's Resolution
Also quoted by: Sir Walter Raleigh
“Fain would I climb, yet fear I to fall.”
Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) said by 1618 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: According to Thomas Fuller's History of the Worthies of England vol. 1 (1662), p. 4, this was written by Raleigh on a window-pane, prompting Elizabeth I to add "If thy heart fails thee, climb not at all".
Also quoted by: Walter Raleigh (attributed)
“Better were it to be unborn than ill-bred.”
Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) said by 1618 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Remember...that if thou marry for beauty, thou bindest thyself all thy life for that which perchance will never last nor please thee one year; and when thou hast it, it will be to thee of no price at all, for the desire dieth when it is attained, and the affection perisheth when it is satisfied.”
Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) said by 1618 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Bestow therefore thy youth so, that thou mayest have comfort to remember it when it hath forsaken thee, and not sigh and grieve at the account thereof.”
Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) said by 1618 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Speaking much also is a sign of vanity; for he that is lavish in words is a niggard in deeds.”
Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) said by 1618 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Be advised what thou dost discourse of, and what thou maintainest whether touching religion, state, or vanity; for if thou err in the first, thou shalt be accounted profane; if in the second, dangerous; if in the third, indiscreet and foolish.”
Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) said by 1618 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No man is esteemed for gay garments but by fools and women.”
Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) said by 1618 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is nothing exempt from the peril of mutation.”
Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) said by 1618 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All histories do shew, and wise politicians do hold it necessary that, for the well-governing of every Commonweal, it behoveth man to presuppose that all men are evil, and will declare themselves so to be when occasion is offered.”
Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) said by 1618 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is the nature of men, having escaped one extreme, which by force they were constrained long to endure, to run headlong into the other extreme, forgetting that virtue doth always consist in the mean.”
Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) said by 1618 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A wise man ought not to desire to inhabit that country where men have more authority than laws. For indeed that country deserves to be desired where every one may securely enjoy his own, not that where with facility it may be taken away; and that friends, for fear to lose their own, are enforced to forsake them.”
Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) said by 1618 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He that doth not as other men do, but endeavoureth that which ought to be done, shall thereby rather incur peril than preservation; for whoso laboureth to be sincerely perfect and good shall necessarily perish, living among men that are generally evil.”
Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) said by 1618 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Historians desiring to write the actions of men, ought to set down the simple truth, and not say anything for love or hatred; also to choose such an opportunity for writing as it may be lawful to think what they will, and write what they think, which is a rare happiness of the time.”
Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) said by 1618 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Whoso taketh in hand to govern a multitude, either by way of liberty or principality, and cannot assure himself of those persons that are enemies to that enterprise, doth frame a state of short perseverance.”
Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) said by 1618 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Whoso desireth to govern well and securely, it behoveth him to have a vigilant eye to the proceedings of great princes, and to consider seriously of their designs.”
Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) said by 1618 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“War begets quiet, quiet idleness, idleness disorder, disorder ruin; likewise ruin order, order virtue, virtue glory and good fortune.”
Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) said by 1618 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Take care that thou be not made a fool by flatterers, for even the wisest men are abused by these. Know, therefore, that flatterers are the worst kind of traitors; for they will strengthen thy imperfections, encourage thee in all evils, correct thee in nothing; but so shadow and paint all thy vices and follies, as thou shalt never, by their will, discern evil from good, or vice from virtue. And, because all men are apt to flatter themselves, to entertain the additions of other men's praises is most perilous. Do not therefore praise thyself, except thou wilt be counted a vain-glorious fool; neither take delight in the praises of other men, except thou deserve it, and receive it from such as are worthy and honest, and will withal warn thee of thy faults; for flatterers have never any virtue — they are ever base, creeping, cowardly persons. A flatterer is said to be a beast that biteth smiling: it is said by Isaiah in this manner — "My people, they that praise thee, seduce thee, and disorder the paths of thy feet;" and David desired God to cut out the tongue of a flatterer. But it is hard to know them from friends, they are so obsequious and full of protestations; for as a wolf resembles a dog, so doth a flatterer a friend. A flatterer is compared to an ape, who, because she cannot defend the house like a dog, labour as an ox, or bear burdens as a horse, doth therefore yet play tricks and provoke laughter. Thou mayest be sure, that he that will in private tell thee thy faults is thy friend; for he adventures thy mislike, and doth hazard thy hatred; for there are few men that can endure it, every man for the most part delighting in self-praise, which is one of the most universal follies which bewitcheth mankind.”
Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) said by 1618 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All, or the greatest part of men that have aspired to riches or power, have attained thereunto either by force or fraud, and what they have by craft or cruelty gained, to cover the foulness of their fact, they call purchase, as a name more honest. Howsoever, he that for want of will or wit useth not those means, must rest in servitude and poverty. The reason thereof is, that as nature hath laid before men the chief of all fortunes, so she disposes them rather to rapine than honest industry, and more subject to bad than good endeavours : hereof it cometh, that one man eateth another, and he that is weakest must always go to the worst.”
Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) said by 1618 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source