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"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."
Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618), British author, soldier, explorer. repr. In The Works of Sir Walter Raleigh, vol. 1 (1751). "A Collection of Political Observations," ch. 25, The Cabinet Council. |
"War begets quiet, quiet idleness, idleness disorder, disorder ruin; likewise ruin order, order virtue, virtue glory, and good fortune."
Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618), British author, soldier, explorer. repr. In The Works of Sir Walter Raleigh, vol. 1 (1751). "A Collection of Political Observations," ch. 25, The Cabinet Council. |
"Whoso 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."
Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618), British author, soldier, explorer. repr. In The Works of Sir Walter Raleigh, vol. 1 (1751). "A Collection of Political Observations," ch. 25, The Cabinet Council. |
"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."
Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618), British author, soldier, explorer. repr. In The Works of Sir Walter Raleigh, vol. 1. "A Collection of Political Observations," ch. 25, The Cabinet Council (1751). |
"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."
Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618), British author, soldier, explorer. repr. In The Works of Sir Walter Raleigh, vol. 1 (1751). "A Collection of Political Observations," ch. 25, The Cabinet Council. |
"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."
Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618), British author, soldier, explorer. repr. In The Works of Sir Walter Raleigh, vol. 1 (1751). "A Collection of Political Observations," ch. 25, The Cabinet Council. |
"Farewell, false love, the oracle of lies,
A mortal foe and enemy to rest;
An envious boy, from whom all cares arise,
A bastard vile, a beast with rage possessed;
A way of error, a temple full of treason,
In all effects contrary unto reason."
Sir Walter Raleigh (1552?-1618), British poet. A Farewell to False Love (l. 1-6). . .
Oxford Book of Sixteenth Century Verse, The. E. K. Chambers, comp. (1932) Oxford University Press. |
"But true love is a durable fire
In the mind ever burning;
Never sick, never old, never dead,
From itself never turning."
Sir Walter Raleigh (1552?-1618), British poet. As You Came from the Holy Land (attributed to Raleigh) (l. 41-44). . .
Norton Anthology of Poetry, The. Alexander W. Allison and others, eds. (3d ed., 1983) W. W. Norton & Company. |
"I have loved her all my youth,
But now old, as you see;
Love likes not the falling fruit
From the withered tree.
Know that love is a careless child
And forgets promise past;
He is blind, he is deaf when he list
And in faith never fast."
Sir Walter Raleigh (1552?-1618), British poet. As You Came from the Holy Land (attributed to Raleigh) (l. 25-32). . .
Norton Anthology of Poetry, The. Alexander W. Allison and others, eds. (3d ed., 1983) W. W. Norton & Company. |
"Even such is Time, 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."
Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618), British author, soldier, explorer. Even Such is Time, The Poems of Sir Walter Raleigh, ed. Agnes M. Latham (1951).
Written the night before his death, this version of the last stanza of one of Raleigh's earlier poems was found in the flyleaf of his Bible in the Abbey Gatehouse at Westminster. |
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