Quote#Nature
If all the world and love were young
Quote byWalter Raleigh · 1552–1618
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd (1599), st. 1–2.
English (original)
If all the world and love were young, And truth in every shepherd's tongue, These pretty pleasures might me move To live with thee and be thy Love.But fading flowers in every field, To winter floods their treasures yield; A honey'd tongue, a heart of gall, Is Fancy's spring, but Sorrow's fall.
— Walter Raleigh
More from Walter Raleigh
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.
[History] hath triumphed over time, which besides it nothing but eternity hath triumphed over.
No man is wise or safe, but he that is honest.
Every fool knoweth that hatreds are the cinders of affection.
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.
Whosoever, in writing a modern history, shall follow truth too near the heels, it may happily strike out his teeth.