Walter Raleigh Quotes

Enjoy the top 116 famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Walter Raleigh.

“A professional man of letters, especially if he is much at war with unscrupulous enenemies, is naturally jealous of his privacy ... so it was, I think, with Dryden.”
— Walter Raleigh —

“The world itself is but a large prison, out of which some are daily led to execution.”

— Walter Raleigh

“Fain would I climb, yet fear I to fall.”

— Walter Raleigh

Thou mayest be sure that he that will in private tell thee of thy faults is thy friend, for he adventures thy dislike and hazards 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 fallies that bewitcheth mankind

— Walter Raleigh

“PASSIONS are likened best to floods and streams:
The shallow murmur, but the deep are dumb;”

— Walter Raleigh

“When the grand twelve million jury of our sins and sinful fury, 'Gainst our souls black verdicts give, Christ pleads his death, and then we live. Be thou my speaker, taintless pleader, unblotted lawyer, true proceeder.”

— Walter Raleigh

“Thou may be sure that he who will tell thee of thy faults is thy friend, for he ventures thy dislike and doth hazard thy hatred.”

— Walter Raleigh

“A professional man of letters, especially if he is much at war with unscrupulous enenemies, is naturally jealous of his privacy ... so it was, I think, with Dryden.”

— Walter Raleigh

“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

“Whosoever, in writing a modern history, shall follow truth too near the heels, it may happily strike out his teeth.”

— Walter Raleigh

“But from this earth, this grave, this dust, My God shall raise me up, I trust.”

— Walter Raleigh

“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.”

— Walter Raleigh

So the heart be right, it is no matter which way the head lieth.

— Walter Raleigh

But true love is a durable fire, In the mind ever burning, Never sick, never old, never dead, From itself never turning.

— Walter Raleigh

“Hatreds are the cinders of affection.”

— Walter Raleigh

A man must first govern himself ere he is fit to govern a family; and his family ere he be fit to bear the government of the commonwealth.

— Walter Raleigh

“This is a sharp medicine, but it is a physician for all diseases and miseries.”

— Walter Raleigh

It is, it is a glorious thing To be a Pirate King.

— Walter Raleigh

“What dependence can I have on the alleged events of ancient history, when I find such difficulty in ascertaining the truth regarding a matter that has taken place only a few minutes ago, and almost in my own presence!”

— Walter Raleigh

“Better it were not to live than to live a coward.”

— Walter Raleigh

“But in vain she did conjure him, To depart her presence so, Having a thousand tongues t' allure him And but one to bid him go. When lips invite, And eyes delight, And cheeks as fresh as rose in June, Persuade delay,
What boots to say Forego me now, come to me soon.”

— Walter Raleigh

“Our shipping and sea service is our best and safest defence as being the only fortification and rampart of England.”

— Walter Raleigh

“I dare not think that any supercelestial heaven, or whatsoever else ... was increate and eternal. And as for the place of God before the world created, the finite wisdom of mortal men hath no perception of it; neither can it limit the seat of infinite power, no more than infinite power itself can be limited; for his place is in himself, whom no magnitude else can contain.”

— Walter Raleigh

Expressive glances Shall be our lances And pops of Sillery Our light artillery.

— Walter Raleigh

“A wandering minstrel I A thing of shreds and patches Of ballads, songs and snatches And dreamy lullaby!”

— Walter Raleigh

“Covetous ambition, thinking all too little which presently it hath, supposeth itself to stand in need of that which it hath not.”

— Walter Raleigh

“The difference between a rich man and a poor man is this
the former eats when he pleases, and the latter when he can get it.”

— Walter Raleigh

Less pains in the world a man cannot take than to bold his tongue.

— Walter Raleigh

Trust few men; above all, keep your follies to yourself.

— Walter Raleigh

“The bodies of men, munition, and money may justly be called the sinews of war.”

— Walter Raleigh

“The necessity of war, which among human actions is the most lawless, hath some kind of affinity with the necessity of law.”

— Walter Raleigh

“Youth is the opportunity to do something and to be somebody.”

— Walter Raleigh

“Our bodies are but the anvils of pain and disease and our minds the hives of unnumbered cares.”

— Walter Raleigh

“No one can take less pains than to hold his tongue. Hear much, and speak little; for the tongue is the instrument of the greatest good and greatest evil that is done in the world.”

— Walter Raleigh

Love likes not the falling fruit,
Nor the withered tree.

— Walter Raleigh

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

There is nothing more becoming any wise man, than to make choice of friends, for by them thou shalt be judged what thou art: let them therefore be wise and virtuous, and none of those that follow thee for gain; but make election rather of thy betters, than thy inferiors.

— Walter Raleigh

“Give my scallop-shell of quiet, My staff of faith to walk upon, My scrip of joy, immortal diet, My bottle of salvation, My gown of glory, hope's true gage; And thus I'll take my pilgrimage.”

— Walter Raleigh

“Divine is Love and scorneth worldly pelf,
And can be bought with nothing but with self.”

— Walter Raleigh

There is nothing exempt from the peril of mutation; the earth, heavens, and whole world is thereunto subject.

— Walter Raleigh

Who so taketh in hand to frame any state or government ought to presuppose that all men are evil, and at occasions will show themselves so to be.

— Walter Raleigh

'Tis a sharp medicine, but it will cure all that ails you.

— Walter Raleigh

“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.”