Walter Raleigh Quotes

79 Sourced Quotes

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

Walter Raleigh
If any friend desire thee to be his surety, give him a part of what thou hast to spare; if he press thee further, he is not thy friend at all, for friendship rather chooseth harm to itself than offereth it. If thou be bound for a stranger, thou art a fool; if for a merchant, thou puttest thy estate to learn to swim.

Walter Raleigh
Our bodies are but the anvils of pain and disease and our minds the hives of unnumbered cares.

Walter Raleigh
In examinations the foolish ask questions that the wise cannot answer.

Walter Raleigh
Our immortal souls, while righteous, are by God himself beautified with the title of his own image and similitude.

Walter Raleigh
I dare not think that any supercelestial heaven, or whatsoever else... was increate and eternal. And as for the place of God before the world created, the finite wisdom of mortal men hath no perception of it; neither can it limit the seat of infinite power, no more than infinite power itself can be limited; for his place is in himself, whom no magnitude else can contain.

Walter Raleigh
It would be an unspeakable advantage, both to the public and private, if men would consider that great truth, that no man is wise or safe but he that is honest.

Walter Raleigh
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.

Walter Raleigh
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.

Walter Raleigh
Flatterers are the worst kind of traitors, for they will strengthen thy imperfections, encourage thee in all evils, correct thee in nothing, but so shadow and paint thy follies and vices as thou shalt never, by their will, discover good from evil, or vice from virtue.

Walter Raleigh
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.

Walter Raleigh
Go, Soul, the body's quest,
Upon a thankless arrant:
Fear not to touch the best,
The truth shall be thy warrant:
Go, since I needs must die,
And give the world the lie.

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

Walter Raleigh
In examinations those who do not wish to know ask questions of those who cannot tell.

Walter Raleigh
Speaking much also is a sign of vanity; for he that is lavish in words is a niggard in deeds.

Walter Raleigh
Bestow therefore thy youth so, that thou mayest have comfort to remember it when it hath forsaken thee, and not sigh and grieve at the account thereof.

Walter Raleigh
[History] hath triumphed over time, which besides it, nothing but eternity hath triumphed over.

Walter Raleigh
Whoso taketh in hand to govern a multitude, either by way of liberty or principality, and cannot assure himself of those persons that are enemies to that enterprise, doth frame a state of short perseverance.

Walter Raleigh
Last Words:
I have a long journey to take, and must bid the company farewell.

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

Walter Raleigh
From thence our kind hard-hearted is, enduring pain and care;
Approving that our bodies of a stony nature are.

Walter Raleigh
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.

Walter Raleigh
Silence in love bewrays more woe Than words, though ne'er so witty; A beggar that is dumb, you know, Deserveth double pity.

Walter Raleigh
Give me 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.

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

Walter Raleigh
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.

Walter Raleigh
Like to an hermit poor in place obscure,
I mean to spend my days of endless doubt,
To wail such woes as time cannot recure,
Where none but Love shall ever find me out.

Walter Raleigh
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.
Written the night before his death

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

Walter Raleigh
An anthology is like all the plums and orange peel picked out of a cake.

Walter Raleigh