Walter Raleigh Quotes
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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.
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Silence in love bewrays more woeThan words, though ne’er so witty:A beggar that is dumb, you know, May challenge double pity.
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War begets quiet, quiet idleness, idleness disorder, disorder ruin; likewise ruin order, order virtue, virtue glory and good fortune.
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But it is hard to know them flatterers from friends, they are so obsequious, and full of protestations; for as a wolf resembles a dog, so doth a flatterer a friend.
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Fain would I climb, yet fear I to fall.
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Speaking much also is a sign of vanity; for he that is lavish in words is a niggard in deeds.
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No man is wise or safe, but he that is honest.
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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.
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Every fool knoweth that hatreds are the cinders of affection.
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Whosoever, in writing a modern history, shall follow truth too near the heels, it may happily strike out his teeth.
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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.
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Cowards fear to die; but courage stout,Rather than live in snuff, will be put out.
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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.
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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.
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Even such is time, that takes in trustOur youth, our joys, our all we have,And pays us but with age and dust;Who in the dark and silent grave,When we have wandered all our ways,Shuts up the story of our days.But from this earth, this grave, this dust,My God shall raise me up, I trust!
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Go, Soul, the body’s guest,Upon a thankless arrant:Fear not to touch the best;The truth shall be thy warrant:Go, since I needs must die,And give the world the lie.Say to the court, it glows.And shines like rotten wood;Say to the church, it showsWhat’s good, and doth no good:If church and court reply,Then give them both the lie.
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History hath triumphed over time, which besides it nothing but eternity hath triumphed over.
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If she undervalue me,What care I how fair she be?
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He that doth not as other men do, but endeavoureth that which ought to be done, shall thereby rather incur peril than preservation; for whoso laboureth to be sincerely perfect and good shall necessarily perish, living among men that are generally evil.
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Methought I saw the grave where Laura lay.
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Remember...that if thou marry for beauty, thou bindest thyself all thy life for that which perchance will never 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.
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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.
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Better were it to be unborn than ill-bred.
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Shall I, like an hermit, dwellOn a rock or in a cell?