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Fain would I climb, yet fear I to fall.

— Walter Raleigh

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Source, in full

Poem written in a glass window obvious to the Queen's eye, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). "Her Majesty, either espying or being shown it, did under-write, 'If thy heart fails thee, climb not at all'", Thomas Fuller, Worthies of England, vol. i. p. 419

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Fear

More quotes by Walter Raleigh

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

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

A wise man ought not to desire to inhabit that country where men have more authority than laws.

The Cabinet Council (1658)

Silence in love bewrays more woe
Than words, though ne’er so witty:
A beggar that is dumb, you know,
May challenge double pity.

Bestow therefore thy youth so, that thou mayest have comfort to remember it when it hath forsaken thee, and not sigh and grieve at the account thereof.

Instructions to his Son and to Posterity (1632)

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

The Cabinet Council (1658)

All Walter Raleigh quotes →

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To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.

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Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.

William James The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy (1897)

There is no governor anywhere; you are all absolutely free. There is no restraint that cannot be escaped.

Robert Anton Wilson

Most intellectual people do not believe in God, but they fear him just the same.

Wilhelm Reich Philosophy : An Introduction to the Art of Wondering (2005)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Walter Raleigh (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.