Quotessence
Home / Topics / Scotland Quotes

Scotland Quotes

Browse 560 quotes about Scotland.

Related topics

ScotsEnglandScottishIfsPeopleThinkingCountryWorldIrelandKnowsFootballWellsSaidShouldWayWould BeNationsStillsWantKingdomsMenTwoWalesWarAmericaBeautifulDoeEndsHas BeensKindBelieveCitiesFilmFirstsHandsHeartHomeI CanImportantMeanSoccerBitsCoursesDadDifferentFunGovernmentIndependentLandLastsLeftLondonLooksMindNeedsPartyRememberStatesTodayTryingUnitedVoice

Scotland Quotes

“I like to keep people around me like the guys I have on the road with me, three of them were childhood friends of mine when I was growing up in Scotland. They don't look at me any different than when we were in primary school. So it's good to keep people like that around you. I think if you surround yourself with good honest people, they will tell you what to hear when you need to hear it.”

PeopleIfsThinkingNeedsLooksDifferentSchoolGuyThreeGrowing UpGrowingChildhoodHonestMinesPrimariesSurroundScotlandLook At MeSurround YourselfHonest PeoplePrimary SchoolChildhood Friend
Author:Johnny Reid
Create image

“There are many kinds of revelation. But the most powerful is the vision which transcends the mental boundary between life and non-life, and Scotland is a place where this sort of revelation often approaches. Staring into a Scottish landscape, I have often asked myself why--in spite of all appearances--bracken, rocks, man and sea are at some level one.”

MenKindLevelsPowerfulVisionSeaRocksApproachAppearanceBoundariesLandscapeStaringRevelationsSpiteMost PowerfulScotlandScottish
Book:Stone Voices: The Search For Scotland
Create image

“When Tony Benn became a minister in the 1960s -- and I think this must be apocryphal -- he had a huge map of Britain hung upside down in his office, so the channel was at the top and Scotland was at the bottom and, apparently, he said, "This is how we need to look at this country, with the money and the power draining by force of gravity out of the south east." That was a great idea. I rather liked him for that. I don't know if it's actually true or not.”

IfsThinkingKnowsNeedsLooksSaidIdeasCountryForceHugeOfficeSouthBottomEastMinistersBritainMapsGravityHungScotland1960sGreat IdeaUpside DownDraining
Author:Neal Ascherson
Create image

“Well, if there is a spectrum between ethnic and civic forms of nationalism, which is a rather schematic way of looking at it, all nationalism contains elements of both, but Scotland is very far on the civic end of the spectrum. That is partly because nobody has ever been stupid enough to say that Scotland is an ethnicity in a genetic sense. A kingdom of Scotland existed long before anybody talked of a Scottish people. So that is one thing we have been spared.”

PeopleIfsWayWellsLongHas BeensEndsEnoughFormOne ThingStupidElementsKingdomsNationalismScotlandSpectrumCivicsScottishEthnicity
Author:Neal Ascherson
Create image

“From the time of the North Briton of the unprincipled Wilkes , a notion has been entertained that the moral spine in Scotland is more flexible than in England. The truth however is, that an elementary difference exists in the public feelings of the two nations quite as great as in the idioms of their respective dialects. The English are a justice-loving people, according to charter and statute; the Scotch are a wrong-resenting race, according to right and feeling: and the character of liberty among them takes its aspect from that peculiarity.”

PeopleHas BeensTwoCharacterFeelingsNationsDifferencesJusticeRaceLibertyMoralAspectEnglandNotionScotlandFlexibleSpineCharterScotchDialectStatutesIdiomBritonsTwo Nations
Author:John Galt
Create image

“There is an immense trout in Loch Awe in Scotland, which is so voracious, and swallows his own species with such avidity, that he has obtained the name 'Salmo Ferox'. I pull about this unnatural monster till he is tired, land him, and administer the coup de grace. Is this cruel? Cruelty should be made of sterner stuff.”

ShouldMadeNamesStuffGraceSeaLandRiversTiredSpeciesFishesMonstersCrueltyBoatAweLakesFishingImmenseScotlandUnnaturalTroutCoups
Author:Arnold Gingrich
Create image

“From the 15th century to 1688, England and Wales, like Scotland, had been peripheral kingdoms in the European power game, more often at war with each other that with Continental powers, and - except under Oliver Cromwell - scarcely very successful on those occasions when they did engage the Dutch, or the French, or the Spanish.”

WarGamesSuccessfulCenturyEnglandKingdomsOccasionsScotlandDutchWalesBritish HistoryContinentalCromwell
Book:Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707-1837
Create image

“These developments - a massive transfer of land by way of inheritance and purchase, an unprecedented rise in the profitability of land and increasing intermarriage between Celtic and English dynasties - helped to consolidate a new unitary ruling class in place of the more separate and specific landed establishments that had characterised England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland in the Tudor and Stuart eras.”

WayClassLandDevelopmentEnglandErasMassiveEstablishmentIrelandScotlandRulingInheritanceTransfersUnprecedentedWalesBritish HistoryCelticDynastyProfitabilityTudorsIntermarriage
Book:Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707-1837
Create image

“It would be wrong to interpret the growth of British national consciousness in this period in terms of a new cultural and political uniformity being resolutely imposed on the peripheries of the island by its centre. For many poorer and less literate Britons, Scotland, Wales and England remained more potent rallying calls than Great Britain, except in times of danger from abroad. And even among the politically educated, it was common to think in terms of dual nationalities, not a single national identity.”

ThinkingWould BePoliticalGrowthTermCommonConsciousnessDangerIdentityPeriodsEnglandBritishEducatedIslandsBritainCentreScotlandNationalityGreat BritainWalesUniformityBritish HistoryPeripheryRallyingNational IdentityBritons
Author:Linda Colley
Create image

“Is this good for English football? In the short run, Chelsea's rise has broken up what was turning into an irritating Arsenal-Manchester United duopoly. But football leagues (look at Scotland, look at Spain) can get along OK with duopolies. A monopoly, however, is a disaster. Everyone else in the Premiership has to operate on some kind of business footing, and the terror stalking Highbury and Old Trafford is that Chelsea will be immune from financial discipline forever.”

LooksKindRunningUnitedForeverFootballBrokenDisciplineFinancialTerrorDisasterSoccerAnalysisLeagueScotlandSpainMonopolyImmuneStalkingManchesterArsenalIrritatingChelseaManchester UnitedBroken UpEnglish FootballFinancial Discipline
Author:Matthew Engel
Create image

“It's all about the climate. I had a long discussion about it when I went to Scotland to see Andy Roxburgh. I worked with a Scottish youth side and had them do the same drills I would do in Italy. I realised that, between the wind, the rain and the cold, there was no way they could do it. How can you possibly teach anybody anything in those conditions? To me, it's pretty obvious and it explains why Brazilians are more technical than Europeans and, in Italy, the further south you go the more technical they are.”

WayLongSidesTeachConditionsYouthFootballWindColdRainSouthClimateObviousManagersSoccerDiscussionScotlandRealisedChairmanScottishDrills
Author:Fabio Capello
Create image

“Scots are born exiles, and Scotland the perfect country to be exiled from. Do not imagine that I am running down Scotland. Far from it. ... No, what I mean is that Scotland's beauties, though undeniable, are obvious ones, easy to carry in the heart, easy even to describe to the benighted members of less fortunate races. Lakes, islands and mountains, heather and rowan, broad straths and narrow glens - these are jewels easily worn in the memory.”

HeartMeanCountryRunningEasyBornMemoriesPerfectRaceImagineMountainMembersObviousFortunateIslandsLakesBroadsImagine ThatWornScotlandJewelsExileScotsLess FortunateHeathers
Book:A pocketful of pebbles
Create image