All Quotes

"Whoso desireth to govern well and securely, it behoveth him to have a vigilant eye to the proceedings of great princes, and to consider seriously of their designs."

"War begets quiet, quiet idleness, idleness disorder, disorder ruin; likewise ruin order, order virtue, virtue glory and good fortune."

"What is our life? A play of passion; our mirth: the music of division; our mother's wombs: the tiring houses be where we are dressed for this short comedy. Heaven the judicious sharp spectator is that sits and marks still who doth act amiss. Our graves that hide us from the searching sun are like drawn curtains when the play is done. Thus march we playing to our latest rest, only we die in earnest, that's no jest."

"The world itself is but a larger prison, out of which some are daily selected for execution."

"So the heart be right, it is no matter which way the head lies."

"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!"

"Fame's but a hollow echo; gold, pure clay; Honour, the darling but of one short day, Beauty—th' eye's idol—but a damasked skin; State, but a golden prison to live in And torture free-born minds."

"Why dost thou not strike? Strike, man!"

"Shall I, wasting in despair, Die because a woman's fair? Or make pale my cheeks with care 'Cause another's rosy are? Be she fairer than the day, Or the flow'ry meads in May, If she think not well of me, What care I how fair she be?"

"If your lordships will look back to a period of the English history, in which the circumstances are reversed, in which the Spaniards were the complainants, you will see how differently they succeeded: you will see one of the ablest men, one of the bravest officers this or any other country ever produced (it is hardly necessary to mention the name of sir Walter Raleigh) sacrificed by the meanest prince that ever sat upon the throne, to the vindictive jealousy of that haughty court. James the First was base enough, at the instance of Gondomar, to suffer a sentence against sir Walter Raleigh, for another supposed offence, to be carried into execution almost twelve years after it had been passed. This was the pretence. His real crime was, that he had mortally offended the Spaniards, while he acted by the King's express orders, and under his commission."

"Recreate yourself with Sir Walter Raleigh's History: it's a Body of History; and will add much more to your understanding than fragments of Story."

"The high position Ralegh had occupied, the greatness of his downfall, the general feeling that the sentence pronounced in 1603 was unjust, and that the carrying of it into execution in 1618 was base, all contributed to exalt the popular appreciation of his character. His enemies had denounced him as proud, covetous, and unscrupulous, and much evidence is extant in support of the unfavourable judgment. But the circumstances of his death concentrated men's attention on his bold exploits against his country's enemies, and to him was long attributed an importance in affairs of state or in conduct of war which the recital of his acts fails to justify. He was regarded as the typical champion of English interests against Spanish aggression... Physical courage, patriotism, resourcefulness may be ungrudgingly ascribed to him. But he had small regard for truth, and reckless daring was the main characteristic of his stirring adventures as politician, soldier, sailor, and traveller. Ralegh acquired, however, a less ambiguous reputation in the pacific sphere of literature, and his mental calibre cannot be fairly judged, nor his versatility fully realised, until his achievements in poetry, in history, and political philosophy have been taken into account. However impetuous and rash was he in action, he surveyed life in his writings with wisdom and insight, and recorded his observations with dignity and judicial calmness."

"The design and style of Ralegh's ‘History of the World’ are instinct with a magnanimity which places the book among the noblest of literary enterprises. Throughout it breathes a serious moral purpose. It illustrates the sureness with which ruin overtakes ‘great conquerors and other troublers of the world’ who neglect law, whether human or divine, and it appropriately closes with an apostrophe to death of rarely paralleled sublimity. Ralegh did not approach a study of history in a critical spirit, and his massive accumulations of facts have long been superannuated. But he showed an enlightened appreciation of the need of studying geography together with history, and of chronological accuracy. His portraits of historical personages—Queen Jezebel, Demetrius, Pyrrhus, Epaminondas—are painted to the life; and the frequent digressions in which he deals with events of his own day, or with philosophic questions of perennial interest, such as the origin of law, preserve for the work much of its original freshness. Remarks on the tactics of the armada, the capture of Fayal, the courage of Englishmen, the tenacity of Spaniards, England's relations with Ireland, emerge in the most unlikely surroundings, and are always couched in judicial and dignified language. His style, although often involved, is free from conceits."

"In the history of the formative period of English overseas expansion, Raleigh occupies an enduring place. He does so, not because of his long protagonism of English as against Spanish imperialism, nor from any lasting achievement in the establishment of English authority overseas. His contribution was made rather to English colonial theory. In the first place, he did as much as any other individual of his age to place American colonization in the public mind as a fixed and continuing objective. Only Richard Hakluyt the younger can stand at his side in this respect, and only his half-brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, can claim any importance among the other Elizabethan colonial enthusiasts."

"Most of his contemporaries regarded the Spanish empire as something to be robbed: Raleigh thought of it as something to be replaced by an English empire... What he did do in this respect was to introduce the concept of tropical imperialism into English colonial thinking... It was the social dynamics of the England of the late Tudor and early Stuart period which made English overseas colonization possible, but Raleigh's ideas and experiments helped in its realization. That is his principal claim to an important position in the making of an English overseas empire."

"Ralegh was, though not the first, yet the centre of the whole group which carried out the most persistent attack upon the great colonial question — England's share in the opening-up of the New World. Oxford in our time was right to name its first Empire club after Ralegh, for he was the most conscious and determined of the makers of Empire. To have destined North America for the dominion of English-speaking people can hardly be regarded as the work of one whose career was a failure."

"Thou knewest this life unfit for thy greatnesse, and thou wert not borne for thy selfe but thy Countrie, thou knewest the Sea, wherein every great soule should wander."

"T'was Spring, t'was Summer, all was gay Now Autumn bears a cloud brow The flowers of Spring are swept way And Summer fruits desert the bough"

"Daughter of Jove, relentless power, Thou tamer of the human breast, Whose iron scourge and tort'ring hour The bad affright, afflict the best!"

"What sorrow was, thou bad'st her know, And from her own she learned to melt at others' woe."

"In glittering arms and glory dressed, High he rears his ruby crest. There the thundering strokes begin, There the press and there the din; Talymalfra's rocky shore Echoing to the battle's roar."

"Where his glowing eye−balls turn, Thousand banners round him burn. Where he points his purple spear, Hasty, hasty Rout is there, Marking with indignant eye Fear to stop and shame to fly. There Confusion, Terror's child, Conflict fierce and Ruin wild, Agony that pants for breath, Despair and honourable Death."

"Now my weary lips I close; Leave me, leave me to repose!"

"Iron sleet of arrowy shower Hurtles in the darkened air."

"Too poor for a bribe, and too proud to importune, He had not the method of making a fortune."

"I shall be but a shrimp of an author."

"Comus and his midnight crew."

"While bright-eyed Science watches round."

"Sweet is the breath of vernal shower, The bee's collected treasures sweet, Sweet music's melting fall, but sweeter yet The still small voice of gratitude."

"And weep the more, because I weep in vain."

"Rich windows that exclude the light, And passages that lead to nothing."

"The social smile, the sympathetic tear."

"When love could teach a monarch to be wise, And gospel-light first dawn'd from Bullen's eyes."

"Now as the Paradisiacal pleasures of the Mahometans consist in playing upon the flute and lying with Houris, be mine to read eternal new romances of Marivaux and Crebillon."

"Behind the steps that Misery treads Approaching Comfort view: The hues of bliss more brightly glow Chastised by sabler tints of woe, And blended form, with artful strife, The strength and harmony of life."

"See the wretch that long has tost On the thorny bed of pain, At length repair his vigour lost, And breathe and walk again: The meanest floweret of the vale, The simplest note that swells the gale, The common sun, the air, the skies, To him are opening paradise."

"And hie him home, at evening's close, To sweet repast and calm repose."

"From toil he wins his spirits light, From busy day the peaceful night; Rich, from the very want of wealth, In heaven's best treasures, peace and health."

"From Helicon's harmonious springs A thousand rills their mazy progress take."

"Glance their many-twinkling feet."

"O'er her warm cheek and rising bosom move The bloom of young Desire and purple light of Love."

"Her track, where'er the goddess roves, Glory pursue, and gen'rous shame, Th' unconquerable mind, 3 and freedom's holy flame."

"Or ope the sacred source of sympathetic tears."

"He passed the flaming bounds of place and time: The living throne, the sapphire-blaze, Where angels tremble, while they gaze, He saw; but blasted with excess of light, Closed his eyes in endless night."

"Hark, his hands the lyre explore! Bright-eyed Fancy hovering o'er Scatters from her pictured urn Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn."

"Beyond the limits of a vulgar fate, Beneath the good how far,—but far above the great."

"Ye distant spires, ye antique towers, That crown the wat'ry glade."

"Ah, happy hills! ah, pleasing shade! Ah, fields beloved in vain! Where once my careless childhood stray'd, A stranger yet to pain! I feel the gales that from ye blow A momentary bliss bestow."

"Still as they run they look behind, They hear a voice in every wind, And snatch a fearful joy."

"Gay hope is theirs by fancy fed, Less pleasing when possest; The tear forgot as soon as shed, The sunshine of the breast."