“Teach you children poetry; it opens the mind, lends grace to wisdom and makes the heroic virtues hereditary.”
“Each age has deemed the new-born year the fittest time for festal cheer.”
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…
“Faces that have charmed us the most escape us the soonest.”
“Many miles away there's a shadow on the door of a cottage on the Shore of a dark Scottish lake.”
“All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.”
“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.”
“A rusted nail, placed near the faithful compass, Will sway it from the truth, and wreck the argosy.”
“Love rules the court, the camp, the grove, And men below, and saints above: For love is heaven, and heaven is love.”
“Unless a tree has borne blossoms in spring, you will vainly look for fruit on it in autumn.”
“O! many a shaft, at random sent, Finds mark the archer little meant! And many a word, at random spoken, May soothe or wound a heart that's broken!”
“When thinking about companions gone, we feel ourselves doubly alone.”
“Success - keeping your mind awake and your desire asleep.”
“A lawyer without history or literature is a mechanic, a mere working mason; if he possesses some knowledge of these, he may venture to call himself an architect.”
“Of all vices, drinking is the most incompatible with greatness.”
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
“To all, to each, a fair good-night, and pleasing dreams, and slumbers light.”
Source: The Poetical Works of Walter Scott, Etc
“There is a vulgar incredulity, which in historical matters, as well as in those of religion, finds it easier to doubt than to examine.”
Source: The Fair Mad of Perth
“To be ambitious of true honor, of the true glory and perfection of our natures, is the very principle and incentive of virtue.”
“Discretion is the perfection of reason, and a guide to us in all the duties of life.”
“He that climbs the tall tree has won right to the fruit, He that leaps the wide gulf should prevail in his suit.”
Source: The Poetical Works of Walter Scott
“It is wonderful what strength of purpose and boldness and energy of will are roused by the assurance that we are doing our duty.”
“If a farmer fills his barn with grain, he gets mice. If he leaves it empty, he gets actors.”
“One hour of life, crowded to the full with glorious action, and filled with noble risks, is worth whole years of those mean observances of paltry decorum, in which men steal through existence, like sluggish waters through a marsh, without either honor or observation.”
Source: the bride of Lammermoor
“The half hour between waking and rising has all my life proved propitious to any task which was exercising my invention... It was always when I first opened my eyes that the desired ideas thronged upon me.”
Source: Sir Walter Scott: Collected Letters, Memoirs and Articles: Complete Autobiographical Writings, Journal & Notes, Accompanied with Extended Biographies and Reminiscences of the Author of Waverly, Rob Roy, Ivanhoe, The Pirate, Old Mortality, The Guy Mannering
“What is a diary as a rule? A document useful to the person who keeps it. Dull to the contemporary who reads it and invaluable to the student, centuries afterwards, who treasures it.”
“Is death the last sleep? No, it is the last and final awakening.”
Source: The Complete Works of Sir Walter Scott: With a Biography, and His Last Additions and Illustrations
“Silence, maiden; thy tongue outruns thy discretion.”
Source: Ivanhoe
“Chivalry!---why, maiden, she is the nurse of pure and high affection---the stay of the oppressed, the redresser of grievances, the curb of the power of the tyrant ---Nobility were but an empty name without her, and liberty finds the best protection in her lance and her sword.”
Source: Ivanhoe
“Love will subsist on wonderfully little hope but not altogether without it.”
Source: Waverley, Complete: Scott's Works Vol.4
“Heap on more wood! - the wind is chill; But let it whistle as it will, We'll keep our Christmas merry still.”
Source: Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field
“We shall never learn to feel and respect our real calling and destiny, unless we have taught ourselves to consider every thing as moonshine, compared with the education of the heart.”
“A Christmas gambol oft could cheer The poor man's heart through half the year.”
Source: Poetical works
“One crowded hour of glorious life is worth an age without a name”
Source: Waverly Novels: The antiquary. The black dwarf. Old mortality
“come he slow or come he fast it is but death that comes at last”
“Blessed be his name, who hath appointed the quiet night to follow the busy day, and the calm sleep to refresh the wearied limbs and to compose the troubled spirit.”
Source: The Novels, Tales and Romances of the Author of Waverley
“One or two of these scoundrel statesmen should be shot once a-year, just to keep the others on their good behavior.”
Source: Waverley Novels
“Many a law, many a commandment have I broken, but my word never.”
Source: Ivanhoe: the History Focus
“The misery of keeping a dog is his dying so soon. But, to be sure, if he lived for fifty years and then died, what would become of me?”
“Cats are a mysterious kind of folk.”
“Will future ages believe that such stupid bigotry ever existed!”
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…
“I have heard men talk about the blessings of freedom," he said to himself, "but I wish any wise man would teach me what use to make of it now that I have it.”
Source: The Waverly Novels: 26 Books in One Volume – Complete Collection: Rob Roy, Ivanhoe, The Pirate, Waverly, Old Mortality, The Guy Mannering, The Antiquary, The Heart of Midlothian, The Betrothed, The Talisman, Black Dwarf, The Monastery, Kenilworth, Legend of Montrose
“In the name of God!" said Gurth, "how came they prisoners? and to whom?" "Our master was too ready to fight," said the Jester, "and Athelstane was not ready enough, and no other person was ready at all.”
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…
“Perhaps the perusal of such works may, without injustice, be compared with the use of opiates, baneful, when habitually and constantly resorted to, but of most blessed power in those moments of pain and of langour, when the whole head is sore, and the whole heart sick. If those who rail indiscriminately at this species of composition, were to consider the quantity of actual pleasure it produces, and the much greater proportion of real sorrow and distress which it alleviates, their philanthropy ought to moderate their critical pride, or religious intolerance.”
Source: The Miscellaneous Prose Works of Sir Walter Scott, Bart: Biographical and critical notices of eminent novelists
“Certainly," quoth Athelstane, "women are the least to be trusted of all animals, monks and abbots excepted.”
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…
“For he that does good, having the unlimited power to do evil, deserves praise not only for the good which he performs, but for the evil which he forbears.”
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
“We are like the herb which flourisheth most when it is most trampled on.”
“Fight on, brave knights! Man dies, but glory lives! Fight on; death is better than defeat! Fight on brave knights! for bright eyes behold your deeds!”
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…
“Thou hast had thty day, old dame, but thy sun has long been set. Thou art now the very emblem of an old warhorse turned out on the barren heath; thou hast had thy paces in thy time, but now a broken amble is the best of them.”
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
“It was woman that taught me cruelty, and on woman therefore I have exercised it.”
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
“I envy thee not thy faith, which is ever in thy mouth but never in thy heart nor in thy practice”
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
“I have sometimes thought of the final cause of dogs having such short lives and I am quite satisfied it is in compassion to the human race; for if we suffer so much in losing a dog after an acquaintance of ten or twelve years, what would it be if they were to live double that time?”
Source: The Complete Works of Sir Walter Scott: With a Biography, and His Last Additions and Illustrations
