Sir Walter Raleigh (c.1552–1618,) sometimes spelled Ralegh, was an English courtier, navigator, and poet. A favorite of Elizabeth I, he organized several voyages of exploration and colonization to the Americas and introduced potato and tobacco plants to England.
Born in Hayes Barton in Devon, Raleigh studied briefly at Oxford but left to volunteer for the Huguenot cause in France. In 1578, he joined a piratical expedition against the Spaniards organized by his half-brother Sir Humphrey Gilbert, and in 1580 he went to Ireland, where he brutally suppressed the rising of the Desmonds. He became a favorite of Queen Elizabeth I, who heaped favors upon him, including estates, the ‘farm of wines,’ and a license to export woolen broadcloths. In 1585 he was appointed Lord Warden of the Stannaries and Vice-Admiral of Devon and Cornwall. The same year he entered parliament as MP for Devon.
From 1584–89, Raleigh sent an expedition to America to take unknown lands in the queen’s name and dispatched an abortive settlement to Roanoke Island, North Carolina (1585–86.) He later made unsuccessful attempts to colonize Virginia and introduced tobacco and potatoes into Britain. Eclipsed as court favorite in 1587 by the young 2nd Earl of Essex, he went to Ireland and planted his estates in Munster with settlers and became a close friend of the poet Edmund Spenser.
In 1595, with five ships, Raleigh explored the coasts of Trinidad and sailed up the Orinoco, and in 1596 took part with Charles Howard and Essex in the sack of Cadiz. In 1600 he became Governor of Jersey and, in three years, did much to promote the island’s trade.
Raleigh was imprisoned in 1603 by James I on a charge of conspiracy. He spent his time in the Tower of London studying, writing, and carrying out chemical experiments. He was released in 1616 to lead an expedition in search of El Dorado but was beheaded at Whitehall on the original charge when he returned empty-handed.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Walter Raleigh
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
Topics: History
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: Youth, Life
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
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
No man is esteemed for colorful garments except by fools and women.
—Walter Raleigh
Topics: Fashion
For whosoever commands the sea commands the trade; whosoever commands the trade of the world commands the riches of the world, and consequently the world itself.
—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
Men endure the losses that befall them by mere casualty with more patience than the damages they sustain by injustice.
—Walter Raleigh
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
Men well governed should seek after no other liberty, for there can be no greater liberty than a good government.
—Walter Raleigh
Topics: Government
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 all thy vices and follies as thou shalt never, by their will, discern good from evil, or vice from virtue.
—Walter Raleigh
Topics: Flattery
Talking much is a sign of vanity, for the one who is lavish with words is cheap in deeds.
—Walter Raleigh
Topics: Goodness
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: Judgment
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, shunning always such as are poor and needy; for if thou givest twenty gifts, and refuse to do the like but once, all that thou hast done will be lost, and such men will become thy mortal enemies.
—Walter Raleigh
Topics: Friendship
War begets quiet, quiet idleness, idleness disorder, disorder ruin; likewise ruin order, order virtue, virtue glory, and good fortune.
—Walter Raleigh
Topics: War, Disorder
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
Topics: Evil
Divines do rightly infer from the sixth commandment, that scandalizing one’s neighbor with false and malicious reports, whereby I vex his spirit, and consequently impair his healthy is a degree of murder.
—Walter Raleigh
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
Remember, that if thou 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; for the desire dieth when it is attained, and the affection perisheth when it is satisfied.
—Walter Raleigh
Topics: Marriage
A man must first govern himself, ere he be fit to govern a family; and his family, ere he be fit to bear the government in the commonwealth.
—Walter Raleigh
Topics: Self-Control, Government
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