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
Topics: Judging, Judgment
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.
—Walter Raleigh
The world is but a large prison, out of which some are daily selected for execution.
—Walter Raleigh
Topics: World
Remember if you marry for beauty, thou bindest thyself all thy life for that which perchance, will neither last nor please thee one year: and when thou hast it, it will be to thee of no price at all.
—Walter Raleigh
Topics: Beauty
But true love is a durable fire,
In the mind ever burning,
Never sick, never old, never dead,
From itself never turning.
—Walter Raleigh
Topics: Romance, Love
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
Topics: Flattery
I wish I loved the Human Race; I wish I loved its silly face; I wish I liked the way it walks; I wish I liked the way it talks; And when I’m introduced to one I wish I thought What Jolly Fun!
—Walter Raleigh
Topics: Humanity, Humankind
He that cannot refrain from much speaking is like a city without walls; therefore if thou observest this rule in all assemblies thou shalt seldom err; restrain thy choler, hearken much, and speak little, for the tongue is the instrument of the greatest good and greatest evil that is done in the world.
—Walter Raleigh
Topics: Talking
I can’t write a book commensurate with Shakespeare, but I can write a book by me.
—Walter Raleigh
Topics: Acceptance, Realization, Expectations, Realistic Expectations, Awareness
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!
—Walter Raleigh
Topics: Death, Dying
If thou be subject to any great vanity or ill, then therein trust no man; for every man’s folly ought to be his greatest secret.
—Walter Raleigh
Topics: Trust
If thy friends be of better quality than thyself, thou mayest be sure of two things; the first, they will be more careful to keep thy counsel, because they have more to lose than thou hast; the second, they will esteem thee for thyself, and not for that which thou dost possess.
—Walter Raleigh
Topics: Friendship
Men endure the losses that befall them by mere casualty with more patience than the damages they sustain by injustice.
—Walter Raleigh
He that hath pity on another man’s sorrow shall be free from it himself; and he that delighteth in, and scorneth the misery of another shall one time or other fall into it himself.
—Walter Raleigh
Topics: Sorrow
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
Topics: The Past, Past
The engine is the heart of an airplane, but the pilot is its soul.
—Walter Raleigh
Topics: Flying
War begets quiet, quiet idleness, idleness disorder, disorder ruin; likewise ruin order, order virtue, virtue glory, and good fortune.
—Walter Raleigh
Topics: Disorder, War
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
Topics: Honesty
Let thy servants be such as thou mayest command, and entertain none about thee but those to whom thou givest wages; for those that will serve thee without thy hire will cost thee treble as much as they that know thy fare.
—Walter Raleigh
Topics: Servants
Take special care that thou never trust any friend or servant with any matter that may endanger thine estate; for so shalt thou make thyself a bond slave to him that thou trustest, and leave thyself always to his mercy.
—Walter Raleigh
Topics: Trust
I do not understand those to be poor and in want, who are vagabonds and beggars, but such as are old and cannot travel, such poor widows and fatherless children as are ordered to be relieved, and the poor tenants that travail to pay their rents and are driven to poverty by mischance, and not by riot or careless expenses; on such have thou compassion, and God will bless thee for it.
—Walter Raleigh
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.
—Walter Raleigh
Topics: Power
Bestow thy youth so that thou mayst have comfort to remember it, when it hath forsaken thee, and not sigh and grieve at the account thereof. Whilst thou art young thou wilt think it will never have an end; but behold, the longest day hath his evening, and thou shalt enjoy it but once; it never turns again; use it therefore as the spring-time, which soon departeth, and wherein thou oughtest to plant and sow all provisions for a long and happy life.
—Walter Raleigh
Topics: Life, Youth
On death and judgment, heaven and hell, who oft doth think, must needs die well.
—Walter Raleigh
Topics: Death
Speaking much is a sign of vanity, for he that is lavish in words is a niggard in deed.
—Walter Raleigh
Topics: Talking
Have ever more care that thou be beloved of thy wife, rather than thyself besotted on her; and thou shalt judge of her love by these two observations: first, if thou perceive she have a care of thy estate, and exercise herself therein; the other, if she study to please thee, and be sweet unto thee in conversation, without thy instruction; for love needs no teaching nor precept.
—Walter Raleigh
Topics: Marriage
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
Topics: Government
Hatreds are the cinders of affection.
—Walter Raleigh
Topics: Hate, Hatred
O! reputation, dearer far than life, thou precious balsam, lovely, sweet of smell, whose cordial drops once spilt by some rash hand, not all thy owner’s care, nor the repenting toil of the rude spiller, ever can collect to its first purity and native sweetness.
—Walter Raleigh
Topics: Reputation
Men well governed should seek after no other liberty, for there can be no greater liberty than a good government.
—Walter Raleigh
Topics: Government
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