- 'Know that Love is a careless child,
- And forgets promises past;
- He is blind, he is deaf when he list,
- And in faith never fast.
- 'His desire is a dureless content,
- And a trustless joy;
- He is won with a world of despair,
- And is lost with a toy.
SIR WALTER RALEIGH, As Ye Came from the Holy Land
- 'Of womenkind such indeed is the love,
- Or the word love abused,
- Under which many childish desires
- And conceits are excused.
SIR WALTER RALEIGH, As Ye Came from the Holy Land
- True love is a durable fire,
- In the mind ever burning.
SIR WALTER RALEIGH, As Ye Came from the Holy Land
- Love likes not the falling fruit,
- Nor the withered tree.
SIR WALTER RALEIGH, As Ye Came from the Holy Land
- Passions are likened best to floods and streams:
- The shallow murmur, but the deep are dumb.
WALTER RALEIGH, The Silent Lover
- Even such is time, that takes in trust
- Our youth, our joys, our all we have,
- And pays us but with age and dust.
WALTER RALEIGH, lines written the night before his death
History hath triumphed over time, which beside it nothing but eternity hath triumphed over.
WALTER RALEIGH, preface, History of the World
So the heart be right, it is no matter which way the head lies.
SIR WALTER RALEIGH, attributed, Sir Walter Raleigh (Stebbing, 1891)
God, whom the wisest men acknowledge to be a power uneffable, and virtue infinite; a light by abundant clarity invisible; an understanding which itself can only comprehend; an essence eternal and spiritual, of absolute pureness and simplicity; was and is pleased to make himself known by the work of the world: in the wonderful magnitude whereof, (all which he embraceth, filleth, and sustaineth,) we behold the image of that glory which cannot be measured, and withal, that one, and yet universal nature which cannot be defined. In the glorious lights of heaven we perceive a shadow of his divine countenance.
SIR WALTER RALEIGH, The First Part of the History of the World: Intreating of the Beginning and First Ages of the Same, from the Creation unto Abraham
The world itself is but a larger prison, out of which some are daily selected for execution.
SIR WALTER RALEIGH, attributed, Sir Walter Raleigh (Stebbing, 1891)
For it is God's infinite power and every-where-presence (compassing, embracing, and piercing all things) that giveth to the sun power to draw up vapours, to vapours to be made clouds; clouds to contain rain, and rain to fall: so all second and instrumental causes, together with nature itself, without that operative faculty which God gave them, would become altogether silent, virtueless and dead.
SIR WALTER RALEIGH, The First Part of the History of the World: Intreating of the Beginning and First Ages of the Same, from the Creation unto Abraham
- What is our life? A play of passion.
- Our mirth the music of division.
- Our mother's wombs the tyring houses be,
- Where we are drest for this short Comedy.
SIR WALTER RALEIGH, "On the Life of Man"
I dare not think that any supercelestial heaven, or whatsoever else ... was increate and eternal. And as for the place of God before the world created, the finite wisdom of mortal men hath no perception of it; neither can it limit the seat of infinite power, no more than infinite power itself can be limited; for his place is in himself, whom no magnitude else can contain.
SIR WALTER RALEIGH, The First Part of the History of the World: Intreating of the Beginning and First Ages of the Same, from the Creation unto Abraham
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!
SIR WALTER RALEIGH, attributed, Testimony: Its Posture in the Scientific World (Chambers, 1859)
Corrupt seeds bring forth corrupt plants.
SIR WALTER RALEIGH, The First Part of the History of the World: Intreating of the Beginning and First Ages of the Same, from the Creation unto Abraham
- Even such is Time, that takes in trust
- Our youth, our joys, our all we have,
- And pays us but with earth and dust.
SIR WALTER RALEIGH, "Even Such Is Time," said to have been composed on the night before his execution
Covetous ambition, thinking all too little which presently it hath, supposeth itself to stand in need of that which it hath not.
SIR WALTER RALEIGH, attributed, Day's Collacon
The fancies of men change, and he that loves today, hateth tomorrow.
SIR WALTER RALEIGH, attributed, Day's Collacon
Fain would I climb, yet fear I to fall.
SIR WALTER RALEIGH, written on a window pane, to which Elizabeth I is said to have added "If thy heart fails thee, climb not at all," History of the Worthies of England
Hatreds are the cinders of affection.
SIR WALTER RALEIGH, letter to Sir Robert Cecil, May 10, 1593
It is dangerous to follow truth too near, lest she should kick out our teeth.
SIR WALTER RALEIGH, attributed, Day's Collacon
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