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Walter Raleigh

Geburtstag: 1554
Todesdatum: 29. Oktober 1618

Sir Walter Raleigh war ein englischer Seefahrer, Entdecker, Soldat, Spion, Politiker, Dichter und Schriftsteller sowie Günstling der englischen Königin Elisabeth I.

Zitate Walter Raleigh

„Schlag schon zu, Mann!“

— Walter Raleigh
Letzte Worte zu seinem Scharfrichter vor seiner Enthauptung, 29. Oktober 1618

Über Männer

„Die Welt ist nur ein großes Gefängnis, aus dem täglich einige zur Exekution geführt werden.“

— Walter Raleigh
Ausspruch im Gefängnis vor seiner Hinrichtung, 1618

Über die Welt

„Wenn Ihre Majestät aufhören werden zu geben" Raleighs Antwort auf die Frage Königin Elizabeths der Ersten: "Raleigh, wann werden Sie endlich aufhören zu betteln?“

— Walter Raleigh

Frage

„Wenn das Herz am rechten Fleck ist, spielt es keine Rolle, wo der Kopf ist.“

— Walter Raleigh
Letzte Worte vor seiner Enthauptung, 29. Oktober 1618

Herz

„Take care that thou be not made a fool by flatterers, for even the wisest men are abused by these. Know, therefore, that 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 evil from good, or vice from virtue.“

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— Walter Raleigh
Context: Take care that thou be not made a fool by flatterers, for even the wisest men are abused by these. Know, therefore, that 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 evil from good, or vice from virtue. And, because all men are apt to flatter themselves, to entertain the additions of other men's praises is most perilous. Do not therefore praise thyself, except thou wilt be counted a vain-glorious fool; neither take delight in the praises of other men, except thou deserve it, and receive it from such as are worthy and honest, and will withal warn thee of thy faults; for flatterers have never any virtue — they are ever base, creeping, cowardly persons. A flatterer is said to be a beast that biteth smiling: it is said by Isaiah in this manner — "My people, they that praise thee, seduce thee, and disorder the paths of thy feet;" and David desired God to cut out the tongue of a flatterer. But it is hard to know them from friends, they are so obsequious and full of protestations; for as a wolf resembles a dog, so doth a flatterer a friend. A flatterer is compared to an ape, who, because she cannot defend the house like a dog, labour as an ox, or bear burdens as a horse, doth therefore yet play tricks and provoke laughter. Thou mayest be sure, that he that will in private tell thee thy faults is thy friend; for he adventures thy mislike, and doth hazard thy hatred; for there are few men that can endure it, every man for the most part delighting in self-praise, which is one of the most universal follies which bewitcheth mankind. Chapter III

„Fain would I, but I dare not; I dare, and yet I may not;
I may, although I care not, for pleasure when I play not.“

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— Walter Raleigh
Fain Would I, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

„So when thou hast, as I
Commanded thee, done blabbing —
Although to give the lie
Deserves no less than stabbing —
Stab at thee he that will,
No stab the soul can kill.“

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— Walter Raleigh
The Lie (1608).

„If she undervalue me,
What care I how fair she be?“

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— Walter Raleigh
Poem reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Compare: "If she be not so to me, / What care I how fair she be?", George Wither, The Shepherd's Resolution.

„No man is wise or safe, but he that is honest.“

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— Walter Raleigh
Advice to the Earl of Rutland on his Travels (1596)

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

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— Walter Raleigh
The History of the World (1614), Preface

„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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— Walter Raleigh
Chapter 25

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

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— Walter Raleigh
Supposed to have been said by Raleigh to his friends as he was being taken to prison, on the day before his execution (William Stebbing Sir Walter Raleigh (1891), chapter 30)

„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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— Walter Raleigh
Chapter 25

„Every fool knoweth that hatreds are the cinders of affection.“

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— Walter Raleigh
Letter to Sir Robert Cecil (10 May 1593)

„Methought I saw the grave where Laura lay.“

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— Walter Raleigh
Verses to Edmund Spenser, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919); Comparable to: "Methought I saw my late espoused saint", John Milton, Sonnet xxiii, and "Methought I saw the footsteps of a throne", William Wordsworth, Sonnet.