Fain would I climb, yet fear I to fall.

(Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618), British author, soldier, explorer. Quoted in History of the Worthies of England, "Devonshire," Thomas Fuller (1662). Line scratched with a diamond ring on a window-pane, to which Queen Elizabeth replied, using the same method, "If thy heart fail thee, climb not at all.")

There is nothing exempt from the peril of mutation; the earth, heavens, and whole world is thereunto subject.

(Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618), British author, soldier, explorer. The Cabinet Council, ch. 24, "Of Civil War," The Works of Sir Walter Raleigh, vol. 1 (1751).)

Whosoever, in writing a modern history, shall follow truth too near the heels, it may haply strike out his teeth.

(Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618), British author, soldier, explorer. The History of the World, preface (1614). Raleigh's History was banned by James I soon after its publication, precisely because, it was alleged, Raleigh followed too closely the "heels of truth"Maccording to biographer Robert Lacey in Sir Walter Raleigh, ch. 41 (1973), Raleigh "took every opportunity he could in his book to pour scorn on famous sodomites, and James took the point.")

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.

(Sir Walter Raleigh (1552?-1618), British poet. The Lie (l. 1-6). . . Oxford Book of Sixteenth Century Verse, The. E. K. Chambers, comp. (1932) Oxford University Press.)

Just at the stroke when my veins start and spread,
Set on my soul an everlasting head.
Then am I ready, like a palmer fit,
To tread those blest paths which before I writ.

(Sir Walter Raleigh (1552?-1618), British poet. The Passionate Man's Pilgrimage (l. 55-58). . . Oxford Book of Sixteenth Century Verse, The. E. K. Chambers, comp. (1932) Oxford University Press.)

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!

(Sir Walter Raleigh (1861-1922), British scholar, critic. The Wishes of an Elderly Man, Laughter from a Cloud (1923).)

Green springs the tree, hemp grows, the wag is wild,
But when they meet, it makes the timber rot;
It frets the halter, and it chokes the child.

(Sir Walter Raleigh (1552?-1618), British poet. Three Things There Be That Prosper All Apace (l. 10-12). . . Oxford Book of Short Poems, The. P. J. Kavanagh and James Michie, eds. Oxford University Press.)

The sun may set and rise:
But we contrariwise
Sleep after our short light
One everlasting night.

(Sir Walter Raleigh (1552?-1618), British poet. The Sun May Set and Rise (l. 1-4). . . Oxford Book of Verse in English Translation, The. Charles Tomlinson, ed. (1980) Oxford University Press.)

Give me my scallop-shell of quiet,
My staff of faith to walk upon,
My scrip of joy, immortal diet,
My bottle of salvation,
My gown of glory, hope's true gage,
And thus I'll take my pilgrimage.

(Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618), British author, soldier, explorer. The Passionate Man's Pilgrimage, The Poems of Sir Walter Raleigh, ed. Agnes M. Latham (1951). Poem written while waiting execution on charges of treason against James I. The scallop-shell was the symbol worn by pilgrims. Raleigh was reprieved, though imprisoned for the next 12 years, and finally condemned and beheaded in 1616.)

Thy gowns, thy shoes,thy beds of roses,
Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies,
Soon break, soon wither?soon forgotten,
In folly ripe,in reason rotten.

(Sir Walter Raleigh (1552?-1618), British poet. The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd (l. 13-16). . . Oxford Anthology of English Literature, The, Vols. I-II. Frank Kermode and John Hollander, general eds. (1973) Oxford University Press (Also published as six paperback vols.: Medieval English Literature, J. B. Trapp, ed.; The Literature of Renaissance England, John Hollander and Frank Kermode, eds.; The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century, Martin Price, ed.; Romantic Poetry and Prose, Harold Bloom and Lionel Trilling, eds.; Victorian Prose and Poetry, Lionel Trilling and Harold Bloom, eds.; Modern British Literature, Frank Kermode and John Hollander, eds.).)