Sir Walter Raleigh Quotes (21 Quotes)

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.

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.

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.

Talking much is a sign of vanity, for the one who is lavish with words is cheap in deeds.

Now what is Love, I pray thee, tell?

Take the good that life can give
For the time you have to live.

It is no wisdom ever to commend or discommend the actions of men by their success for oftentimes some enterprises attempted by good counsel end unfortunately, and others unadvisedly taken in hand have happy success.

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.

Well you know that sleep is best.

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.

Yet what is Love, I prithee, say?

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.

Better were it to be unborn than to be ill bred.

Yet what is Love, good shepherd, sain?

No man is esteemed for colorful garments except by fools and women.

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.

A sense that Death is drawing near!

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.

Yet some relief even terror brings,
For when our life is cold and gray
We waste our strength on little things,
And fret our puny souls away.

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.

Yet, shepherd, what is Love, I pray?