“The glory of greatness consisting more in raising than in ruining of…” — William Alexander

“The glory of greatness consisting more in raising than in ruining of others, it is a far better course to purchase fame by the Plantation of a new World than as many Princes have done by the desolation of this.”

Preferring constructive expansion over destructive conquest · Dedication, An Encouragement to Colonies

William Alexander

About William Alexander

c. 1567–12 February 1640

William Alexander, later the first Earl of Stirling, was born about 1567 at Menstrie in Clackmannanshire, near Stirling, Scotland, and died in London on 12 February 1640. He belonged to that distinctive early Stuart class of men for whom poetry, government service, courtly advancement, religious reflection, and…

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