Walter Raleigh Quotes

Talking much is a sign of vanity, for the one who is lavish with words is cheap in deeds.

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

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

The most divine light only shineth on those minds which are purged from all worldly dross and human uncleanliness.

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.

But it is hard to know them from friends, they are so obsequious and full of protestations; for a wolf resembles a dog, so doth a flatterer a friend.

[It is a basic principle of a tyrant] to unarm his people of weapons, money and all means whereby they resist his power.

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

It is not truth, but opinion that can travel the world without a passport.

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.

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.

Whoever commands the sea, commands the trade; whosoever commands the trade of the world commands the riches of the world, and consequently the world itself.

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.

All men are evil and will declare themselves to be so when occasion is offered.

Hatreds are the cinders of affection.

I wish I loved the Human Race; I wish I loved its silly face; I wish I liked the way it walks; I wish I liked the way it talks; And when I'm introduced to one I wish I thought What Jolly Fun!

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

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.

It is observed in the course of worldly things, that men's fortunes are oftener made by their tongues than by their virtues; and more men's fortunes overthrown thereby than by vices.

Prevention is the daughter of intelligence.

He that doth not as other men do, but endeavoureth that which ought to be done, shall thereby rather incur peril than preservation; for who so laboreth to be sincerely perfect and good shall necessarily perish, living among men that are generally evil.

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.

If thou marry beauty, thou bindest thyself all thy life for that which, perchance, will neither last nor please thee one year.

The world is itself but a larger prison, out of which some are daily selected for execution.

No mortal thing can bear so high a price, But that with mortal thing it may be bought.

The useful type of successful teacher is one whose main interest is the children, not the subject.

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

Never spend anything before thou have it; for borrowing is the canker and death of every man's estate.

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

Oh, doughty sons of Hungary! May all success Attend and bless Your warlike ironmongery!

I shall never be persuaded that God hath shut up all light of learning within the lantern of Aristotle's brain.

Even such is time, that takes in trust Our youth, our joys, our all we have, And pays us but with age and dust.

God is absolutely good; and so, assuredly, the cause of all that is good.

There is no error which hath not some appearance of probability resembling truth, which, when men who study to be singular find out, straining reason, they then publish to the world matter of contention and jangling.

If she undervalues me, What care I how fair she be?

The first draught serveth for health, the second for pleasure, the third for shame, the fourth for madness.

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

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!

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

Who so desireth to know what will be hereafter, let him think of what is past, for the world hath ever been in a circular revolution; whatsoever is now, was heretofore; and things past or present, are no other than such as shall be again: Redit orbis in orbem.

Fain would I climb, yet fear I to fall.

Passions are likened best to floods and streams: The shallow murmur, but the deep are dumb.

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

War begets quiet, quiet idleness, idleness disorder, disorder ruin; likewise ruin order, order virtue, virtue glory, and good fortune.

Even such isTime, which takes in trust Our youth, our joys, and 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, And from which earth, and grave, and dust The Lord shall raise me up, I trust.

Except thou desire to hasten thine end, take this for a general rule, that thou never add any artificial heat to thy body by wine or spice.

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.

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.

It is plain there is not in nature a point of stability to be found; everything either ascends or declines; when wars are ended abroad, sedition begins at home; and when men are freed from fighting for necessity, they quarrel through ambition.