Walter Raleigh Quotes - Page 4

A wandering minstrel I A thing of shreds and patches Of ballads, songs and snatches And dreamy lullaby!

And when I'm introduced to one I wish I thought What Jolly Fun!

Let valour end my life!

Whoso desireth to govern well and securely, it behoveth him to have a vigilant eye to the proceedings of great princes, and to consider seriously of their designs.

It is plain there is not in nature a point of stability to be found; everything either ascends or declines; when wars are ended abroad, sedition begins at home; and when men are freed from fighting for necessity, they quarrel through ambition.

There never was a man of solid understanding, whose apprehensions are sober, and by a pensive inspection advised, but that he hath found by an irresistible necessity one true God and everlasting being.

No mortal thing can bear so high a price, But that with mortal thing it may be bought.

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.

The bodies of men, munition, and money may justly be called the sinews of war.

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

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.

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.

But in vain she did conjure him, To depart her presence so, Having a thousand tongues t' allure him And but one to bid him go. When lips invite, And eyes delight, And cheeks as fresh as rose in June, Persuade delay,-- What boots to say Forego me now, come to me soon.

All histories do show, 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.

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

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.

There is nothing exempt from the peril of mutation; the earth, heavens, and whole world is thereunto subject.

... but the longest day hath its evening.

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

Silence in love betrays more woe - Than words though ne'er so witty; A beggar that is dumb, you know, may challenge double pity.

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.

The necessity of war, which among human actions is the most lawless, hath some kind of affinity with the necessity of law.

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.

Romance is a love affair in other than domestic surroundings.

Fain would I climb, yet fear I to fall.