“Spangling the wave with lights as vain As pleasures in the vale of pain, That dazzle as they fade.”
Source: The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott, Bart
“O woman! in our hours of ease Uncertain, coy, and hard to please, And variable as the shade By the light quivering aspen made; When pain and anguish wring the brow, A ministering angel thou!”
“Lightly from fair to fair he flew, And loved to plead, lament, and sue; Suit lightly won, and short-lived pain, For monarchs seldom sigh in vain.”
Source: The poetical works of Sir Walter Scott
“My foot is on my native heath, and my name is MacGregor.”
Source: Rob Roy
“Land of my sires! what mortal hand Can e'er untie the filial band That knits me to thy rugged strand!”
“Vacant heart, and hand, and eye, Easy live and quiet die.”
“Steady of heart and stout of hand.”
Source: The Lay of the Last Minstrel. By Sir Walter Scott, Bart. With All His Introductions and Notes, Various Readings, and the Editor's Notes
“Breathes there the man, with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land! Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd, As home his footsteps he hath turn'd From wandering on a foreign strand! If such there breathe, 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 renown, And, doubly dying, shall go down To the vile dust, from whence he sprung, Unwept, unhonor'd, and unsung.”
Source: Poetical works
“When true friends meet in adverse hour; 'Tis like a sunbeam through a shower. A watery way an instant seen, The darkly closing clouds between.”
“A thousand fearful images and dire suggestions glance along the mind when it is moody and discontented with itself. Command them to stand and show themselves, and you presently assert the power of reason over imagination.”
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
“The rose is fairest when 't is budding new, And hope is brightest when it dawns from fears. The rose is sweetest wash'd with morning dew, And love is loveliest when embalm'd in tears.”
Source: Poetical works
“The Book of Books Within this ample volume lies The mystery of mysteries. Happiest they of human race To whom their God has given grace To read, to fear, to hope, to pray, To lift the latch, to force the way; But better had they ne'er been born That read to doubt or read to scorn.”
“Revenge, the sweetest morsel to the mouth that ever was cooked in hell.”
Source: Waverley Novels: The heart of Mid-Lothian
“Women are but the toys which amuse our lighter hours---ambition is the serious business of life.”
Source: Ivanhoe: a romance
“The pith of conversation does not consist in exhibiting your own superior knowledge on matters of small consequence, but in enlarging, improving and correcting the information you possess by the authority of others.”
Source: Waverley Novels: Quentin Durward. 1862
“I will but confess the sins of my green cloak to my grey friar's frock, and all shall be well again.”
Source: Ivanhoe a Romance
“In listening mood she seemed to stand, The guardian Naiad of the strand.”
Source: Select Poetical Works: Lay of the Last Minstrel, Marmion, Lady of the Lake and Rokeby
“Tell that to the marines - the sailors won't believe it.”
“Saint George and the Dragon!-Bonny Saint George for Merry England!-The castle is won!”
Source: Ivanhoe, Complete: Scott's Works Vol.1
“Independently of the curious circumstance that such tales should be found existing in very different countries and languages, which augurs a greater poverty of human invention than we would have expected, there is also a sort of wild fairy interest in them, which makes me think them fully better adapted to awaken the imagination and soften the heart of childhood than the good-boy stories which have been in later years composed for them.”
“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!”
“Art thou a friend to Roderick?”
Source: The Lady of the Lake and Vision of Don Roderick: Complete in One Volume
“Profan'd the God-given strength, and marr'd the lofty line.”
Source: Selected poems
“It 's no fish ye 're buying, it 's men's lives.”
“Where lives the man that has not tried How mirth can into folly glide, And folly into sin!”
Source: The poetical works of Sir Walter Scott
“But search the land of living men, Where wilt thou find their like again?”
Source: The Poetical Works (Annotated Edition)
“I will suppose that you have no friends to share or rejoice in your success in life — that you cannot look back to those to whom you owe gratitude, or forward to those to whom you ought to afford protection; but it is no less incumbent on you to move steadily in the path of duty — for your active exertions are due not only to society, but in humble titude to the Being who made you a member of it, with powers to serve yourself and others.”
“Thus aged men, full loth and slow, The vanities of life forego, And count their youthful follies o'er, Till Memory lends her light no more.”
Source: The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott, Bart
“Then hush thee, my darling, take rest while you may, For strife comes with manhood, and waking with day.”
Source: The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott, Bart
“That day of wrath, that dreadful day. When heaven and earth shall pass away.”
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 way was long, the wind was cold, The Minstrel was infirm and old; His withered cheek, and tresses gray, Seemed to have know a better day.”
Source: The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott: With a Sketch of His Life
“Who o'er the herd would wish to reign, Fantastic, fickle, fierce, and vain! Vain as the leaf upon the stream, And fickle as a changeful dream; Fantastic as a woman's mood, And fierce as Frenzy's fever'd blood. Thou many-headed monster thing, Oh who would wish to be thy king!”
Source: Poetical Works: Complete in One Volume with All His Introd. and Notes
“So faithful in love, and so dauntless in war, There never was knight like young Lochinvar.”
“For Love will still be lord of all.”
Source: Poetical Works: Complete in One Volume with All His Introd. and Notes
“For a laggard in love, and a dastard in war, Was to wed the fair Ellen of Lochinvar.”
“He turn'd his charger as he spake, Upon the river shore, He gave his bridle reins a shake, Said, "Adieu for evermore, my love, And adieu for evermore."”
Source: The Lady of the Lake
“"Lambe them, lads! lambe them!" a cant phrase of the time derived from the fate of Dr. Lambe, an astrologer and quack, who was knocked on the head by the rabble in Charles the First's time.”
Source: Peveril of the Peak, Complete: Scott's Works Vol.26
“Some feelings are to mortals given With less of earth in them than heaven.”
Source: The Poetical Works of Walter Scott
“On his bold visage middle age Had slightly press'd its signet sage, Yet had not quench'd the open truth And fiery vehemence of youth: Forward and frolic glee was there, The will to do, the soul to dare.”
Source: Poetical Works ... With a biographical and critical memoir by Francis Turner Palgrave. (The Globe edition.).
“Within that awful volume lies The mystery of mysteries!”
Source: The Waverley Novels
“In the lost battle, Borne down by the flying, Where mingles war's rattle With groans of the dying.”
Source: The poetical works of Sir Walter Scott
“What can they see in the longest kingly line in Europe, save that it runs back to a successful soldier?”
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
“There never will exist anything permanently noble and excellent in the character which is a stranger to resolute self-denial.”
“Heaven know its time; the bullet has its billet”
Source: The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott, Bart
“He hath a share of man's intelligence, but no share of man's falsehood.”
Source: The Talisman, The Two Drovers, My Aunt Margaret's Mirror, The Tapestried Chamber, The Laird's Jock
“The happy combination of fortuitous circumstances.”
Source: The Waverley novels. 25 vols.
“November's sky is chill and drear, November's leaf is red and sear.”
Source: The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott: With a Sketch of His Life
“Jock, when ye hae naething else to do, ye may be aye sticking in a tree; it will be growing, Jock, when ye 're sleeping.”
Source: Waverley Novels
“Affection can withstand very severe storms of vigor, but not a long polar frost of indifference.”
“Just at the age 'twixt boy and youth, When thought is speech, and speech is truth.”
Source: The poetical works of sir Walter Scott. With life. 8 engr. on steel
