“Above all things, be not made an ass to carry the burdens of other men if any friend desire thee to be his surety, give him a part of what thou has to spare if he presses thee further, he is not thy friend at all.”
Source: The Works of Sir Walter Ralegh, Kt: Miscellaneous works
“All men are evil and will declare themselves to be so when occasion is offered.”
Source: Miscellaneous works
“Desire attained is not desire,
But as the cinders of the fire.”
Source: Delphi Complete Poetical Works of Sir Walter Raleigh (Illustrated)
“Youth is the opportunity to do something and to be somebody.”
“Love likes not the falling fruit,
Nor the withered tree.”
“Even such is time, that takes in trust
Our youth, our joys, our all we have,
And pays us but with age and dust.”
Source: The Discovery of the Large, Rich, and Beautiful Empire of Guiana: With a Relation of the Great and Golden City of Manoa... Etc. Performed in the Year 1595, by Sir W. Ralegh, Knt... Reprinted from the Edition of 1596, with Some Unpublished Documents Relative to that Country. Ed., with Copious Explanatory Notes and a Biographical Memoir, by Sir Robert H. Schomburgk
“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.”
“In a word, we may gather out of History a policy no less wise than I eternal; by the comparison and application of other mens fore-passed miseries with our own like errours and ill-deservings.”
Source: The History of the World, in Five Books
“Whosoever in writing a modern history shall follow the truth too near the heels it may haply strike out his teeth.”
“Divine is Love and scorneth worldly pelf,
And can be bought with nothing but with self.”
Source: Miscellaneous works
“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.”
“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.”
“But true love is a durable fire, In the mind ever burning, Never sick, never old, never dead, From itself never turning.”
Source: The Poems of Sir Walter Raleigh
“There is nothing exempt from the peril of mutation; the earth, heavens, and whole world is thereunto subject.”
Source: The Works of Sir Walter Ralegh: Kt. Political, Commercial, and Philosophical; Together with His Letters and Poems. The Whole Never Before Collected Together, and Some Never Yet Printed. To which is Prefix'd, a New Account of His Life by Tho. Birch
“But from this earth, this grave, this dust, My God shall raise me up, I trust.”
Source: Poems
“I can't write a book commensurate with Shakespeare, but I can write a book by me.”
“The first draught serveth for health, the second for pleasure, the third for shame, the fourth for madness.”
Source: The Works of Sir Walter Ralegh, Kt: Miscellaneous works
“Use your youth so that you may have comfort to remember it when it has forsaken you, and not sigh and grieve at the account thereof.”
“Passions are likened best to floods and streams: The shallow murmur, but the deep are dumb.”
Source: The Works of Sir Walter Ralegh: Kt. Political, Commercial, and Philosophical; Together with His Letters and Poems. The Whole Never Before Collected Together, and Some Never Yet Printed. To which is Prefix'd, a New Account of His Life by Tho. Birch
“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.”
Source: The Works of Sir Walter Ralegh: Kt. Political, Commercial, and Philosophical; Together with His Letters and Poems. The Whole Never Before Collected Together, and Some Never Yet Printed. To which is Prefix'd, a New Account of His Life by Tho. Birch
“Hatreds are the cinders of affection.”
“Fain would I climb, yet fear I to fall.”
“If she undervalues me,
What care I how fair she be?”
Source: Delphi Complete Poetical Works of Sir Walter Raleigh (Illustrated)
“The world is itself but a larger prison, out of which some are daily selected for execution.”
“No one is wise or safe, but they that are honest.”
“Talking much is a sign of vanity, for the one who is lavish with words is cheap in deeds.”
“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.”
“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.”
Source: Miscellaneous works
“War begets quiet, quiet idleness, idleness disorder, disorder ruin; likewise ruin order, order virtue, virtue glory, and good fortune.”
Source: The Works of Sir Walter Ralegh
“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.”
Source: Miscellaneous works
“This is a sharp medicine, but it is a physician for all diseases and miseries.”
Source: Delphi Complete Poetical Works of Sir Walter Raleigh (Illustrated)
“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 hath 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!”
Source: The History of the World: In Five Books. Viz. Treating of the Beginning and First Ages of Same from the Creation Unto Abraham. Of the Birth of Abraham to the Destruction of Jerusalem to the Time of Philip of Macedon. From the Reign of Philip of Macedon to the Establishing of that Kingdom in the Race of Antigonus. From Settled Rule of Alexander's Successors in the East Until the Romans (prevailing Over All) Made Conquest of Asia and Macedon
“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.”
Source: Miscellaneous works
“[It is a basic principle of a tyrant] to unarm his people of weapons, money and all means whereby they resist his power.”
“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.”
“Passions are liken'd best to floods and streams:
The shallow murmur, but the deep are dumb;
So, when affection yields discourse, it seems
The bottom is but shallow whence they come.
They that are rich in words, in words discover”
“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.”
Source: Miscellaneous works
“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.”
“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!”
“No man is esteemed for colorful garments except by fools and women.”
“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.”
Source: Miscellaneous works
“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.”
Source: Miscellaneous works
“So the heart be right, it is no matter which way the head lieth.”
“Romance is a love affair in other than domestic surroundings.”
“If thy friends be of better quality than thyself, thou mayest be sure of two things; first, they will be more careful to keep thy counsel, because they have more to lose than thou hast; the second, they will esteem thee for thyself, and not for that which thou dost possess.”
Source: Miscellaneous works
“A professional man of letters, especially if he is much at war with unscrupulous enemies, is naturally jealous of his privacy; he will be silent on his more personal interests, or, if he must speak, will veil them under conventional forms.”
“Hath triumphed over time, which besides it nothing but eternity hath triumphed over.”
“Fain would I, but I dare not; I dare, and yet I may not;
I may, although I care not, for pleasure when I play not.”
Source: Delphi Complete Poetical Works of Sir Walter Raleigh (Illustrated)
“In a letter to a friend the thought is often unimportant, and the feeling, if it be only a desire to entertain him, every thing.”
“Silence in love betrays more woe - Than words though ne'er so witty; A beggar that is dumb, you know, may challenge double pity.”
