Sir Walter Raleigh

(1552 - 1618 / Devon / England)

poet Sir Walter Raleigh
#245 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.
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  • ''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.
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  • ''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).
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  • ''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.
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  • ''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.
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  • ''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).
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  • ''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."
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  • ''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).
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  • ''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."
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  • ''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).
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Best Poem of Sir Walter Raleigh

Her Reply

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 Time drives flocks from field to fold;
When rivers rage and rocks grow cold;
And Philomel becometh dumb;
The rest complains of cares to come.

The flowers do fade, and wanton fields
To wayward Winter reckoning yields:
A honey tongue, a heart of gall,
Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall.

Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses,
Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies,
Soon break, ...

Read the full of Her Reply

The Conclusion

EVEN such is Time, that takes in trust
Our youth, our joys, our all we have,
And pays us but with earth and dust;
   Who in the dark and silent grave,
When we have wander'd 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.

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