Walter Raleigh Quotes

The study of the errors into which great minds have fallen in the pursuit of truth can never be uninstructive. . . No man is so wise but that he may learn some wisdom from his past errors, either of thought or action, and no society has made such advances as to be capable of no improvement from the retrospect of its past folly and credulity.

To the wise man, to the wise nation, the mistakes of the past are the torches of the present.

We ought not to look back, unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dear bought experience.

Wise men say, and not without reason, that whosoever wished to foresee the future might consult the past.

No accidents are so unlucky [bad] but that the wise may draw some advantage [good] from them.

Only fools think they're wise; the rest of us just muddle through as we can.

Novels may teach us as wholesome a moral as the pulpit. There are "sermons in stones," in healthy books, and "good in everything.

Okay I've been stupid in the past. Not consistently stupid, but occasionally stupid. And I've made mistakes. You bet, I've made mistakes.

Sometimes fairy stories may say best what's to be said.

I must accommodate my history to the hour: I may presently change, not only by fortune, but also by intention.

The past sharpens perspective, warns against pitfalls, and helps to point the way.

Calamities that are not the result of purely natural phenomena usually have their origins, distant and obscure though they may be, in common human failings.

A whetstone is no carving instrument, And yet it maketh sharp the carving tool; And if you see my efforts wrongly spent, Eschew that course and learn out of my school; For thus the wise may profit by the fool, And edge his wit, and grow more keen and wary, For wisdom shines opposed to its contrary.

It will take an unprecedented act of courage, on a grand scale. You may have to do something virtually unknown in the annals of human history. ... You may have to give up some of your most sacred beliefs. ... let me make something clear.

To mourn a mischief that is past and gone Is the next way to draw new mischief on.

History is a better guide than good intentions.

It's a wise man who profits by his own experience, but it's a good deal wiser one who lets the rattlesnake bite the other fellow.

What are stories for if we don't learn from them?

My people must be tried in all things, that they may be prepared to receive the glory that I have for them.

The only thing history teaches us, a wise man once said, is that history doesn’t teach us anything.

Leadership of a world-economy is an experience of power which may blind the victor to the march of history.

Some of the best lessons we ever learn we learn from our mistakes and failures. — The error of the past is the wisdom and success of the future.

Be versed in ancient lore, and familiarize yourself with the modern; then may you become teachers.

Those who don't know the mistakes of the past won't be able to enjoy it when they make them again in the future.

History is either a moral argument with lessons for the here-and-now, or it is merely an accumulation of pointless facts.