“Give me an honest laugher.”
“Though varying wishes, hopes, and fears,
Fever'd the progress of these years,
Yet now, days, weeks, and months but seem
The recollection of a dream.”
Source: The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott, Bart
“What various scenes, and O! what scenes of Woe,
Are witness'd by that red and struggling beam!
The fever'd patient, from his pallet low,
Through crowded hospitals beholds it stream;
The ruined maiden trembles at its gleam,
The debtor wakes to thought of gyve and jail,
The love-lorn wretch starts from tormenting dream;
The wakeful mother, by the glimmering pale,
Trims her sick infant's couch, and soothes his feeble wail.”
Source: Scott's Lady of the Lake
“Mystery has great charms for womanhood.”
“Who, noteless as the race from which he sprung,
Saved others' names, but left his own unsung.”
Source: The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott, Bart
“Those who are too idle to read, save for the purpose of amusement, may in these works acquire some acquaintance with history, which, however inaccurate, is better than none.”
Source: Novels of Ernest Theodore Hoffman. The omen. Hajji Baba in England. Tales of my landlord Thornton's Sporting tour. Two cookery books. Johnes' translation of Froissart. Miseries of human life. Carr's Caledonian sketches. Lady Suffolk's correspondence. Kirkton's Church history. Life and works of John Home. The Culloden papers. Pepys' Memoirs
“Love, to her ear, was but a name,
Combin'd with vanity and shame;
Her hopes, her fears, her joys, were all
Bounded within the cloister wall.”
“He that follows the advice of reason has a mind that is elevated above the reach of injury; that sits above the clouds, in a calm and quiet ether, and with a brave indifferency hears the rolling thunders grumble and burst under his feet.”
“It is a great disgrace to religion, to imagine that it is an enemy to mirth and cheerfulness, and a severe exacter of pensive looks and solemn faces.”
“There are those to whom a sense of religion has come in storm and tempest; there are those whom it has summoned amid scenes of revelry and idle vanity; there are those, too, who have heard its "still small voice" amid rural leisure and placid retirement. But perhaps the knowledge which causeth not to err is most frequently impressed upon the mind during the season of affliction.”
Source: Waverley novels. (Abbotsford ed.).
“It was in the beginning of the month of November, 17--, when a young English gentleman, who had just left the university of Oxford, made use of the liberty afforded him, to visit some parts of the north of England; and curiosity extended his tour into the adjacent frontier of the sister country.”
Source: The Waverley Novels: In Twelve Volumes, Printed from the Latest English Editions, Embracing the Author's Last Corrections, Prefaces, and Notes
“In that pleasant district of merry England which is watered by the river Don, there extended in ancient times a large forest, covering the greater part of the beautiful hills and valleys which lie between Sheffield and the pleasant town of Doncaster.”
Source: The Waverley Novels: In Twelve Volumes, Printed from the Latest English Editions, Embracing the Author's Last Corrections, Prefaces, and Notes
“It is the privilege of tale-tellers to open their story in an inn, the free rendezvous of all travellers, and where the humour of each displays itself, without ceremony or restraint.”
Source: Waverley Novels: Kenilworth
“A sound head, an honest heart, and an humble spirit are the three best guides through time and to eternity.”
“And children know,
Instinctive taught, the friend and foe.”
Source: The Complete Poetry of Sir Walter Scott: The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, The Lady of the Lake, Translations and Imitations from German Ballads, Marmion, Rokeby, The Field of Waterloo, Harold the Dauntless, The Wild Huntsman…
“Treason seldom dwells with courage.”
Source: The Waverley novels. 25 vols.
“Without courage there cannot be truth, and without truth there can be no other virtue.”
Source: Life of Sir Walter Scott, bart
“If a faultless poem could be produced, I am satisfied it would tire the critics themselves; and annoy the whole reading world with the spleen.”
Source: The Complete Short Stories of Sir Walter Scott: Chronicles of the Canongate, The Keepsake Stories, The Highland Widow, The Tapestried Chamber, Halidon Hill, Auchindrane and many more: From the Great Scottish Writer, Author of Waverly, Rob Roy, Ivanhoe, The Pirate, Old Mortality, The Guy Mannering, The Antiquary, Anne of Geierstein, The Betrothed and The Talisman
“Every hour has its end.”
Source: The Surgeon's Daughter, and Castle Dangerous
“The lover's pleasure, like that of the hunter, is in the chase, and the brightest beauty loses half its merit, as the flower its perfume, when the willing hand can reach it too easily. There must be doubt; there must be difficulty and danger.”
Source: Waverley Novels
“Sensibility is nature's celestial spring.”
“Sleep in peace, and wake in joy.”
Source: Poetical works
“He that would soothe sorrow must not argue on the vanity of the most deceitful hopes.”
Source: The Complete Novels of Sir Walter Scott: Waverly, Rob Roy, Ivanhoe, The Pirate, Old Mortality, The Guy Mannering, The Antiquary, The Heart of Midlothian and many more (Illustrated): The Betrothed, The Talisman, Black Dwarf, The Monastery, The Abbot, Kenilworth, Peveril of the Peak, A Legend of Montrose, The Fortunes of Nigel, Tales from Benedictine Sources…
“Tears are the softening showers which cause the seed of heaven to spring up in the human heart.”
“The time which passes over our heads so imperceptibly makes the same gradual change in habits, manners and character, as in personal appearance. At the revolution of every five years we find ourselves another and yet the same;--there is a change of views, and no less of the light in which we regard them; a change of motives as well as of action.”
Source: Waverley Novels
“It is more difficult to look upon victory than upon battle.”
Source: The Waverley Novels: In Twelve Volumes, Printed from the Latest English Editions, Embracing the Author's Last Corrections, Prefaces, and Notes
“A fool's wild speech confounds the wise.”
Source: The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott, Bart
“A sinful heart makes feeble hand.”
Source: The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott: With a Sketch of His Life
“Each must drain
His share of pleasure, share of pain.”
Source: Poetical works
“Marry in haste, repent at leisure.”
“No scene of mortal life but teems with mortal woe.”
Source: The Complete Poetry of Sir Walter Scott: The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, The Lady of the Lake, Translations and Imitations from German Ballads, Marmion, Rokeby, The Field of Waterloo, Harold the Dauntless, The Wild Huntsman…
“The heart-sick faintness of the hope delayed!”
Source: The poetical works of Sir ---
“Threatened folk live long.”
“A good deal of philanthropy arises in general from mere vanity and love of distinction gilded over to others and to themselves with some show of benevolent sentiment.”
Source: The Complete Works of Sir Walter Scott: With a Biography, and His Last Additions and Illustrations
“Look not thou on beauty's charming;
Sit thou still when kings are arming;
Taste not when the wine-cup glistens;
Speak not when the people listens”
Source: Selected poems
“A ruin should always be protected but never repaired - thus may we witness full the lingering legacies of the past.”
“Hurry no man's cattle; you may come to own a donkey yourself”
“Alas!... what is it, valiant knight, save an offering of sacrifice to a demon of vain glory, and a passing through the fire of Moloch? What remains to you as a prize of all the blood you have spilled, of all the travail and pain you have endured, of all the tears which your deeds have caused, when death hath broken the strong man's spear, and overtaken the speed of his war-horse?”
Source: Heroes of the Scottish Highlands: Ivanhoe, Waverley and Rob Roy (3 Unabridged Illustrated Classics): Historical Novels from the Author of The Pirate, The Heart of Midlothian, Old Mortality, The Guy Mannering, The Antiquary, The Bride of Lammermoor and Anne of Geierstein
“All is possible for those who dare to die!”
Source: The waverly novels
“As long as the Fates permit, live cheerfully.”
“If you keep a thing seven years, you are sure to find a use for it.”
Source: The Waverley Novels: In Twelve Volumes, Printed from the Latest English Editions, Embracing the Author's Last Corrections, Prefaces, and Notes
“Although too much of a soldier among sovereigns, no one could claim with better right to be a sovereign among soldiers.”
Source: The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French
“Chess is a sad waste of brains.”
“A few drops sprinkled on the torch of love make the flame blaze the brighter.”
Source: Ivanhoe: a romance
“Look back, and smile on perils past.”
Source: Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott ...
“O, what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive!”
“For success, attitude is equally as important as ability.”
“He is the best sailor who can steer within fewest points of the wind, and exact a motive power out of the greatest obstacles.”
“We build statues out of snow, and weep to see them melt.”
“Success or failure in business is caused more by the mental attitude even than by mental capacities.”
