Scottish Quotations - Page 6
Statue of Sir Walter Scott, below the Scott Monument, Princes Street, Edinburgh
For success, attitude is equally as important as ability.Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) - still true today.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "O Caledonia! stern and wild,
Meet nurse for a poetic child!
Land of brown heath and shaggy wood,
Land of the mountain and the flood,
Land of my sires! what mortal hand
Can e'er untie the filial band,
That knits me to thy rugged strand!"Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Look back, and smile on perils past.Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Oh, what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practice to deceive."Perhaps you have heard this quotation and did not know who first said it? It was penned by Sir Walter Scott.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Breathes there a man, with soul so dead,
Who never to himself has said,
This is my own, my native land!
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned,
As home his footsteps he hath turned
From wandering on a foreign strand!
If such there be, go, mark him well;
For him no Minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;
Despite those titles, power and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair reknown,
And doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonoured and unsung.From "The Lay of the Last Minstrel" written in 1805 by Sir Walter Scott
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Behold the Tiber!" the vain Roman cried,
Viewing the ample Tay from Baiglie's side;
But where's the Scot that would vaunt repay,
And hail the puny Tiber for the Tay?"From "The Fair Maid of Perth" by Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "A glass of wine is a glorious creature, and it reconciles poor humanity to itself; and that is what few things can do"
Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Revenge, the sweetest morsel to the mouth that ever was cooked in hell.
Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To the timid and hesitating everything is impossible because it seems so.
Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The race of mankind would perish did they cease to aid each other. We cannot exist without mutual help. All therefore that need aid have a right to ask it from their fellow-men; and no one who has the power of granting can refuse it without guilt.Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "In a civilised society, law is the chimney through which all that smoke discharges itself that used to circulate through the whole house, and put everyone's eyes out - no wonder, therefore, that the vent itself should sometimes get a little sooty."Sir Walter Scott, writing in "Guy Mannering" seems to be offering lawyers an excuse! Scott was originally a lawyer by profession.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "I dinna ken muckle about the law," answered Mrs Howden; "but I ken, when we had a king, and a chancellor, and parliament-men o' our ain, we could aye peeble them wi' stanes when they werena gude bairns - Bit naebody's nails can reach the length o' Lunnon."
From "The Heart of Midlothian" by Sir Walter Scott, in 1818.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Many a clever boy is flogged into a dunce and many an original composition corrected into mediocrity"
Sir Walter Scott writing in 1826.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "A place for everything, and everything in its place"
"We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery."
Writer Samuel Smiles (1812-1904). His book "Self Help" with biographies of the great men of his day, urged its readers to "Do likewise" and was a roaring success in its day.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Stirling, like a huge brooch, clasps Highlands and Lowlands together."
Writer Alexander Smith in his book "A Summer in Skye" in 1856.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Hard by, in the fields called the Leith Links, the citizens of Edinburgh divert themselves at a game called golf, in which they use a curious kind of bat, tipt with horn, and small elastic balls of leather, stuffed with feathers, rather less than tennis balls, but of a much harder consistence. This they strike with such force and dexterity from one hole to another, that they will fly to an incredible distance. Of this diversion the Scots are so fond, that when the weather will permit, you may see a multitude of all ranks, from the senator of justice to the lowest tradesman, mingled together in their shirts, and following the balls with the utmost eagerness."
Tobias Smollet, writing in 1771.
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