Top 90 Walter Raleigh Quotes (2024 Update)
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51. “No man is esteemed for colorful garments except by fools and women.”

— Walter Raleigh

52. “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.”

— Walter Raleigh

53. “If thou marry beauty, thou bindest thyself all thy life for that which, perchance, will neither last nor please thee one year.”

— Walter Raleigh

54. “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

55. “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.”

— Walter Raleigh

56. “Death, which hateth and destroyeth a man, is believed; God, which hath made him and loves him, is always deferred.”

— Walter Raleigh

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

— Walter Raleigh

58. “The gain of lying is, not to be trusted of any, nor to be believed when we speak the truth.”

— Walter Raleigh

59. “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.”

— Walter Raleigh

60. “Hatreds are the cinders of affection.”

— Walter Raleigh

61. “Let valour end my life!”

— Walter Raleigh

62. “There is no error which hath not some appearance of probability resembling truth, which, when men who study to be singular find out, straining reason, they then publish to the world matter of contention and jangling.”

— Walter Raleigh

63. “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

64. “I shall never be persuaded that God hath shut up all light of learning within the lantern of Aristotle’s brain.”

— Walter Raleigh

65. “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

66. “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.”

— Walter Raleigh

67. “Oh, doughty sons of Hungary! May all success Attend and bless Your warlike ironmongery!”

— Walter Raleigh

68. “Because all men are apt to flatter themselves, to entertain the addition of other men’s praises is most perilous.”

— Walter Raleigh

69. “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

70. “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.”

— Walter Raleigh

71. “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.”

— Walter Raleigh

72. “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.”

— Walter Raleigh

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

— Walter Raleigh

74. “The House of Peers, throughout the war, Did nothing in particular, And did it very well: Yet Britain set the world ablaze In good King George’s glorious days!”

— Walter Raleigh

75. “It is observed in the course of worldly things, that men’s fortunes are oftener made by their tongues than by their virtues; and more men’s fortunes overthrown thereby than by vices.”

— Walter Raleigh

76. “Our shipping and sea service is our best and safest defence as being the only fortification and rampart of England.”

— Walter Raleigh

77. “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.”

— Walter Raleigh

78. “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

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

— Walter Raleigh

80. “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

81. “Our bodies are but the anvils of pain and disease and our minds the hives of unnumbered cares.”

— Walter Raleigh

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

— Walter Raleigh

83. “What dependence can I have on the alleged events of ancient history, when I find such difficulty in ascertaining the truth regarding a matter that has taken place only a few minutes ago, and almost in my own presence!”

— Walter Raleigh

84. “The longer it possesseth a man the more he will delight in it, and the older he groweth the more he shall be subject to it; for it dulleth the spirits, and destroyeth the body as ivy doth the old tree, or as the worm that engendereth in the kernal of the nut.”

— Walter Raleigh

85. “Less pains in the world a man cannot take than to bold his tongue.”

— Walter Raleigh

86. “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.”

— Walter Raleigh

87. “Hath triumphed over time, which besides it nothing but eternity hath triumphed over.”

— Walter Raleigh

88. “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.”

— Walter Raleigh

89. “It were better for a man to be subject to any vice than to drunkenness; for all other vanities and sins are recovered, but a drunkard will never shake off the delight of beastliness.”

— Walter Raleigh

90. “No one is wise or safe, but they that are honest.”

— Walter Raleigh

91. “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.”

— Walter Raleigh

92. “Romance is a love affair in other than domestic surroundings.”

— Walter Raleigh