Sir Walter Raleigh

(1552 - 1618 / Devon / England)

poet Sir Walter Raleigh
#213 on top 500 poets

Sir Walter Raleigh Quotes

  • ''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.
    84 person liked.
    		58 person did not like.
  • ''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.
    66 person liked.
    		53 person did not like.
  • ''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).
    60 person liked.
    		49 person did not like.
  • ''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.
    41 person liked.
    		21 person did not like.
  • ''Whoso 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.''
    Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618), British author, soldier, explorer. repr. In The Works of Sir Walter Raleigh, vol. 1 (1751). "Maxims of State," ch. 26, The Cabinet Council.
    22 person liked.
    		11 person did not like.
  • ''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.''
    Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618), British author, soldier, explorer. repr. In The Works of Sir Walter Raleigh, vol. 2 (1751), also Advice to a Son (1962). "Private Quarrels to be Avoided," ch. 4, Instructions to His Son and to Posterity (1632).
    13 person liked.
    		2 person did not like.
  • ''Fain would I climb, yet fear I to fall.''
    Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618), British author, soldier, explorer. Quoted in History of the Worthies of England, "Devonshire," Thomas Fuller (1662). Line scratched with a diamond ring on a window-pane, to which Queen Elizabeth replied, using the same method, "If thy heart fail thee, climb not at all."
    14 person liked.
    		2 person did not like.
  • ''There is nothing exempt from the peril of mutation; the earth, heavens, and whole world is thereunto subject.''
    Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618), British author, soldier, explorer. The Cabinet Council, ch. 24, "Of Civil War," The Works of Sir Walter Raleigh, vol. 1 (1751).
    12 person liked.
    		1 person did not like.
  • ''Whosoever, in writing a modern history, shall follow truth too near the heels, it may haply strike out his teeth.''
    Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618), British author, soldier, explorer. The History of the World, preface (1614). Raleigh's History was banned by James I soon after its publication, precisely because, it was alleged, Raleigh followed too closely the "heels of truth"Maccording to biographer Robert Lacey in Sir Walter Raleigh, ch. 41 (1973), Raleigh "took every opportunity he could in his book to pour scorn on famous sodomites, and James took the point."
    9 person liked.
    		4 person did not like.
  • ''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.''
    Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618), British author, soldier, explorer. repr. In The Works of Sir Walter Raleigh, vol. 2 (1751), also in Advice to a Son (1962). "Wisest Men Have Been Abused by Flatterers," ch. 3, Instructions to His Son and to Posterity (1632).
    14 person liked.
    		1 person did not like.

Read more quotations »
Poem Hunter ›
›
Quotations
Best Poem of Sir Walter Raleigh

My Last Will

When I am safely laid away,
Out of work and out of play,
Sheltered by the kindly ground
From the world of sight and sound,
One or two of those I leave
Will remember me and grieve,
Thinking how I made them gay
By the things I used to say;
-- But the crown of their distress
Will be my untidiness.

What a nuisance then will be
All that shall remain of me!
Shelves of books I never read,
Piles of bills, undocketed,
Shaving-brushes, razors, strops,
Bottles that have lost their tops,
...

Read the full of My Last Will

Now What Is Love

Now what is Love, I pray thee, tell?
It is that fountain and that well
Where pleasure and repentance dwell;
It is, perhaps, the sauncing bell
That tolls all into heaven or hell;
And this is Love, as I hear tell.

Yet what is Love, I prithee, say?
It is a work on holiday,

Read more »
[Report Error]