SWSir Walter Raleigh

43 collected words

Sir Walter Raleigh

Life dates: 1552 AD — 1618 AD

Listed in the author section of Bartlett’s ninth-edition anthology, in the linked 1905 printing. Dates reflect that historical edition and may differ from modern scholarship.

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Quotations and sayings

01Undated

Flatterers are the worst kind of traitors.

Sir Walter Raleigh / quote

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02Undated

Hear much and speak little; for the tongue is the instrument of the greatest good and the greatest evil that is done in this world.

Sir Walter Raleigh / quote

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03Undated

Men no sooner find their appetites unanswered than they complain the times are injurious.

Sir Walter Raleigh / quote

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04Undated

Nothing is profane that serveth to holy things.

Sir Walter Raleigh / quote

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05Undated

Stab at thee who will, / No stab the soul can kill.

Sir Walter Raleigh / quote

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06Undated

The gain of lying is nothing else but not to be trusted of any, nor to be believed when we say the truth.

Sir Walter Raleigh / quote

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07Undated

The unlearned man knoweth not what it is to descend into himself and call himself to account; nor the pleasure of that most pleasant life which consists in our daily feeling ourselves become better.

Sir Walter Raleigh / quote

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08Undated

Use 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. Use it as the springtime which soon departeth, and wherein thou oughtest to plant and sow all provisions for a long and happy life.

Sir Walter Raleigh / quote

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09Undated

O eloquent, just, and mightie Death! whom none could advise, thou hast persuaded; what none hath dared, thou hast done; and whom all the world hath flattered, thou only hast cast out of the world and despised. Thou hast drawne together all the farre stretched greatnesse, all the pride, crueltie, and ambition of man, and covered it all over with these two narrow words, Hic jacet!

Sir Walter Raleigh / quote

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10Undated

Quivering fears, heart-tearing cares, Anxious sighs, untimely tears. Fly, fly to courts; Fly to fond worldlings’ sports, Where strain’d sardonic smiles are glossing still, And grief is forced to laugh against her will; Where mirth’s but mummery; And sorrows only real be!

Sir Walter Raleigh / quote

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11Undated

Here are no false entrapping baits, To hasten too, too hasty fates; Unless it be The fond credulity Of silly fish, which, worldling like, still look Upon the bait, but never on the hook: Nor envy, unless among The birds, for prize of their sweet song.

Sir Walter Raleigh / quote

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12Undated

Abused mortals! did you know Where joy, heart’s-ease, and comforts grow, You’d scorn proud towers, And seek them in these bowers, Where winds sometimes our woods perhaps may shake, But blustering care could never tempest make, Nor murmurs e’er come nigh us, Saving of fountains that glide by us.

Sir Walter Raleigh / quote

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13Undated

To Thee, O Jesu, I direct my eyes, To Thee my hands, to Thee my humble knees; To Thee my heart shall offer sacrifice, To Thee my thoughts, who my thoughts only sees; To Thee myself, myself and all I give, To Thee I die, to Thee I only live.

Sir Walter Raleigh / quote

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14Undated

And thou, my soul, inspired with holy flame, View and review with most regardful eye That holy cross whence thy salvation came, On which thy Saviour and thy sin did die! For in that sacred object is much pleasure, And in that Saviour is my life, my treasure.

Sir Walter Raleigh / quote

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15Undated

Rise, O my soul, with thy desires to heaven, And with divinest contemplation use Thy time, where time’s eternity is given, And let vain thoughts no more thy thoughts abuse; But sown in darkness let them lie; So live the better, let the worst thoughts die!

Sir Walter Raleigh / quote

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16Undated

Ye pretty daughters of the Earth and Sun.

Sir Walter Raleigh / quote

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17Undated

Silence in love bewrays more woe Than words, tho' ne'er so witty; A beggar that is dumb, you know, May challenge double pity.

Sir Walter Raleigh / quote

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18Undated

God’s justice in the one, and his goodness in the other, is exercised for evermore, as the everlasting subjects of his reward and punishment.

Sir Walter Raleigh / quote

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19Undated

I can't write a book commensurate with Shakespeare but I can write a book by me.

Sir Walter Raleigh / quote

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