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Quote by Anthony Esolen

“We think that mercy is a sweeter and easier thing than justice, but it is not so; for justice takes us as we are, but mercy assaults us and batters at the gates of our heart, demanding that we be made new...Sometimes sorrow is easier than joy, and despair more comforting that hope.”

Quote by Anthony Esolen

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Anthony Esolen

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“Ach!" cried Emmeline impatiently, "you had aye a saft side to Madge. Onybody wi' their twa een in their heid cud a' seen the road she was like to tak. Wi' her palaverin' an' her pooderin' an' her this an' that. She had a' her orders, had Madge. An' a stink o scent 'at wad knock ye doon. Foozlin' her face wi' pooders. Eneuch to pit faces ooten fashion. I wadna be seen ga'in' the length o' masel wi' a face like yon. A wadna ging the midden sic a sicht.”

MakeupScentScots LanguageMadge
Book:The Quarry Wood
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“Now Scots, it must be observed, is not English badly spelled; nor is it a dialect of English. To simplify, but not in a direction away from the truth; the Scots language was a development - and by now is a degeneration - of the Anglian branch of what is called Old English, and was originally spoken from the Forth to the Humber - that's to say, on both sides of the Border. The Saxon branch to the South flourished and became what we call English. With the establishment of the Border, the Anglian branch developed as Scots. Scots and English, therefore, are cousin languages with a common ancestor, and it is as absurdto call Scots a dialect of English as it would be to call English a dialect of Scots.”

ScotlandEnglish LanguageScots LanguageAnglo Saxon England
Book:Scottish Eccentrics
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“The language of this Poeme is (as thou seeist) mixt of the English and Scottish Dialects; which perhaps may be vnpleasant and irksome to some readers of both nations. But I hope the gentle and judicious English reader will beare with me, if I retaine some badge of mine owne countrie, by vsing sometimes words that are peculiar therevnto, especiallie when I finde them propre, and significant. And as for my owne countrymen, they may not justly finde fault with me, if for the more parte I vse the English phrase, as worthie to be preferred before our owne for the elegance and perfection thereof. Yea I am perswaded that both countrie-men will take in good part the mixture of their Dialects, the rather for that the bountiful providence of God doth invite them both to a staiter vnion and conjunction aswell in languages as in other respectes.”

English LanguageScots LanguageUnion Of The Crowns
Book:The Tragedie of Darius
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“Eugenics wis aye a gey sair pynt - the richt tae chuse yer ain mairraige pairtner, especially the wumman's richt, wis yin o thair vauntit freedoms, in contrast tae the FZ. Nanetheless, the Eugenics Law wis desingt tae discourage fowk, nae twa weys aboot it, fae hain bairns wi expensive medical problems. Parents that deleeberately incurrt costs for an avoidable genetic ill or disabeelity got nae benefits, nae maternity leave, nae schuill place for the bairn, naethin.”

Women S RightsEugenicsScots LanguageDisabilitiesWelfare BenefitsGenetic Disorders
Book:Braken Fences
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“Scots words to tell to your heart how they wrung it and held it, the toil of their days and unendingly their fight. And the next minute that passed from you, you were English, back to the English words so sharp and clean and true - for a while, till they slid so smooth from your throat you knew they could never say anything that was worth the saying at all.”

English LanguageScots Language
Book:A Scots Quair: Sunset Song, Cloud Howe, Grey Granite
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“It seems ti me that the're a whein o guid grunds for owresettin the Shakespeare play intil Scots. For ae thing, the action is set maistlie in Scotland an the dramatis personae is maistlie Scots. For aw, it haes becom an English stage tradeition ti knap the plays o Shakespeare in a clippit ferr back Inglish accent, an whan this is duin wi Macbeth, it is ill ti credit that the action haes oniething to dae wi Scotland at aw. For another thing, Shakespeare's play is nou that weill-kent that monie skreids in it ir nou clichés - wurds that war aince fou o virr haes becum sachless owre the hunders o year sen they war written.”

William ShakespeareScots LanguageMacbeth
Book:Scots Glasnost VII: April 1993
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“THE TRYST O luely, luely cam she in And luely she lay doon: I kent her by her caller lips And her breists sae sma' and roun'. A thru the nicht we spak nae word Nor sinder'd bane frae bane: A' thru the nicht I heard her hert Gang soundin' wi' my ain. It was aboot the waukrife hour When cocks began to craw That she smool'd saftly thru the mirk Afore the day wud daw. Sae luely, luely cam she in Saie luely was she gaen; And wi' her a' my simmer days Like they had never been.”

Scots LanguageTryst
Book:Into a Room: Selected Poems
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