Fain would I climb, but that I fear to fall. [A line written by Sir Walter Raleigh, with a diamond ring, on the glass of a window in a pavilion of Queen Elizabeth, who, on being informed of it, wrote underneath it:] If thy mind fail thee, do not climb at all. Scott.Kenilworth, Chap. XVII.
1. I am lost in thought. 2. Thought of the Queen, perhaps? 1. Why, if it were, Heaven may be thought on, though too high to climb. 2. Oh! now I find where your ambition drives. Dryden.Spanish Friar, Act I. Scene 1.
He either fears his fate too much, Or his deserts are small, Who dares not put it to the touch, To win or lose it all. Scott.Intro. to Chron. of the Canongate, Vol. XIX.