Walter Scott Quotes

Like the dew on the mountain, like the foam on the river, like the bubble on the fountain, thou art gone, and for ever! ~ Walter Scott

Treason seldom dwells with courage. ~ Walter Scott

he acquired a more complete mastery of a spirit tamed by adversity, than his former experience had given him; and that he felt himself entitled to say firmly, though perhaps with a sigh, that the romance of his life was ended, and that its real history had now commenced. He was soon called upon to justify his pretensions to reason and philosophy. ~ Walter Scott

It is only when I dally with what I am about, look back and aside, instead of keeping my eyes straight forward, that I feel these cold sinkings of the heart. ~ Walter Scott

Teach you children poetry; it opens the mind, lends grace to wisdom and makes the heroic virtues hereditary. ~ Walter Scott

And my father!-oh, my father! evil is it with his daughter, when his grey hairs are not remembered because of the golden locks of youth! ~ Walter Scott

Art thou a friend to Roderick? ~ Walter Scott

High minds, of native pride and force, Most deeply feel thy pangs, Remorse; Fear, for their scourge, means villains have, Thou art the torturer of the brave! ~ Walter Scott

The will to do, the soul to dare. ~ Walter Scott

In the lost battle, Borne down by the flying, Where mingles war's rattle With groans of the dying. ~ Walter Scott

Crystal and hearts would lose all their merit in the world if it were not for their fragility. ~ Walter Scott

In man's most dark extremity Oft succour dawns from Heaven. ~ Walter Scott

It was woman that taught me cruelty, and on woman therefore I have exercised it. ~ Walter Scott

The abstract idea of a spirit certainly implies that it has neither substance, form, shape, voice, or anything which can render its presence visible or sensible to human faculties. ~ Walter Scott

Hunger and fear are excellent casuists. ~ Walter Scott

Hurry no man's cattle; you may come to own a donkey yourself ~ Walter Scott

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? ~ Walter Scott

Many of our cares are but a morbid way of looking at our privileges ~ Walter Scott

Recollect that the Almighty, who gave the dog to be companion of our pleasures and our toils, hath invested him with a nature noble and incapable of deceit. ~ Walter Scott

But if I accept these conditions," said Fosti, "what shall be the compensation of the king of Norway, my ally 'i" " Seven feet of English land," answered the envoy; "or, as Hardrada is a giant, perhaps a little more. ~ Walter Scott

The historian Major-General Sir David Stewart of Garth described them as an 'excellent, orderly regiment of well-behaved serviceable men, fit for any duty' and the novelist Sir Walter Scott used his journal to call them a 'regiment of Sutherland giants'. (One of their number was Samuel McDonald, a native of Lairg, who was seven feet four inches tall. Throughout the army he was known as 'Big Sam'.) ~ Trevor Royle

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. ~ Walter Scott

Every hour has its end. ~ Walter Scott

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. ~ Walter Scott

Soldier, rest! Thy warfare o'er, Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking, Dream of battled fields no more. Days of danger, nights of waking. ~ Walter Scott

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. ~ Walter Scott

Hard toil can roughen form and face, And want call quench the eye's bright grace. ~ Walter Scott

To all, to each, a fair good-night, And pleasing dreams, and slumbers light. ~ Walter Scott

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. ~ Walter Scott

All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education. ~ Walter Scott

I am aware I may be here reminded of the necessity of rendering instruction agreeable to youth, and of Tasso's infusion of honey into the medicine prepared for a child; but an age in which children are taught the driest doctrines by the insinuating method of instructive games, has little reason to dread the consequences of study being rendered too serious or severe. The history of England is now reduced to a game at cards, the problems of mathematics to puzzles and riddles, and the doctrines of arithmetic may, we are assured, be sufficiently acquired by spending a few hours a-week at a new and complicated edition of the Royal Game of the Goose. There wants but one step further, and the Creed and Ten Commandments may be taught in the same manner, without the necessity of the grave face, deliberate tone of recital, and devout attention hitherto exacted from the well-governed childhood of this realm. It may in the mean time be subject to serious consideration, whether those who are accustomed only to acquire instruction through the medium of amusement, may not be brought to reject that which approaches under the aspect of study; whether those who learn history by the cards, may not be led to prefer the means to the end; and whether, were we to teach religion in the way of sport, our pupils might not thereby be gradually induced to make sport of their religion. ~ Walter Scott

Some touch of Nature's genial glow. ~ Walter Scott

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 ~ Walter Scott

I forgive you, Sir Knight," said Rowena, "as a Christian."
"That means," said Wamba, "that she does not forgive him at all. ~ Walter Scott

he was too proud a man to be a vain one. ~ Walter Scott

My breakthrough as a reader was when I discovered the European adventure story writers - Alexander Dumas, Robert Louis Stevenson, Sir Walter Scott, to name a few. ~ Terry Brooks

There is a vulgar incredulity, which in historical matters, as well as in those of religion, finds it easier to doubt than to examine. ~ Walter Scott

A sound head, an honest heart, and an humble spirit are the three best guides through time and to eternity. ~ Walter Scott

That day of wrath, that dreadful day. When heaven and earth shall pass away. ~ Walter Scott

Hope is brightest when it dawns from fears. ~ Walter Scott

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! ~ Walter Scott

Hail to the Chief who in triumph advances!
Honored and blessed be the ever-green Pine!
Long may the tree, in his banner that glances,
Flourish, the shelter and grace of our line!
Heaven send it happy dew,
Earth lend it sap anew,
Gayly to bourgeon and broadly to grow,
While every Highland glen
Sends our shout back again,
'Roderigh Vich Alpine dhu, ho! ieroe! ~ Walter Scott

My foot is on my native heath, and my name is MacGregor. ~ Walter Scott

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. ~ Walter Scott

November's sky is chill and drear, November's leaf is red and sear. ~ Walter Scott

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? ~ Walter Scott

Hail to the chief in triumph advances. ~ Walter Scott

cared for no rogues but their own, ~ Walter Scott

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. ~ Walter Scott

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. ~ Walter Scott

Most of the world has now outlived good part of these harms, though by no means all of them; but in our South they flourish pretty forcefully still. Not so forcefully as half a generation ago, perhaps, but still forcefully. There, the genuine and wholesome civilization of the nineteenth century is curiously confused and commingled with the Walter Scott Middle-Age sham civilization; and so you have practical, common-sense, progressive ideas, and progressive works; mixed up with the duel, the inflated speech, and the jejune romanticism of an absurd past that is dead, and out of charity ought to be buried. ~ Mark Twain

With the single exception of Homer, there is no eminent writer, not even Sir Walter Scott, whom I can despise so entirely as I despise Shakespeare when I measure my mind against his ... It would positively be a relief to me to dig him up and throw stones at him. ~ George Bernard Shaw

My mind to me a kingdom is. I am rightful monarch; and, God to aid, I will not be dethroned by any rebellious passion that may rear its standard against me. ~ Walter Scott

'Tis an old tale, and often told; But did my fate and wish agree, Ne'er had been read, in story old, Of maiden true betray'd for gold, That loved, or was avenged, like me! ~ Walter Scott

Nothing is more the child of art than a garden. ~ Walter Scott

Thy resolution may fluctuate on the wild and changeful billows of human opinion, but mine is anchored on the Rock of Ages. ~ Walter Scott

To augment their misery, a contagious disorder of a dangerous nature spread through the land; and, rendered more virulent by the uncleanness, the indifferent food, and the wretched lodging of the lower classes, swept off many whose fate the survivors were tempted to envy, as exempting them from the evils which were to come. ~ Walter Scott

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. ~ Walter Scott

As he offered to advance, she exclaimed, Remain where thou art, proud Templar, or at thy choice advance!
one foot nearer, and I plunge myself from the precipice; my body shall be crushed out of the very form of humanity upon the stones of that courtyard ere it become the victim of thy brutality! ~ Walter Scott

...[G]old is their god, and for riches will they pawn their lives as well as their lands. ~ Walter Scott

In prosperous times I have sometimes felt my fancy and powers of language flag, but adversity is to me at least a tonic and bracer. ~ Walter Scott

If you once turn on your side after the hour at which you ought to rise, it is all over. Bolt up at once. ~ Walter Scott

Ambition, policy, bravery, all far beyond their sphere, here learned the fate of mortals. ~ Walter Scott

Breathes there the man with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land. ~ Walter Scott

I envy thee not thy faith, which is ever in thy mouth but never in thy heart nor in thy practice ~ Walter Scott

There is no better antidote against entertaining too high an opinion of others than having an excellent one of ourselves at the very same time. ~ Walter Scott

War is the only game in which both sides lose. ~ Walter Scott

Sensibility is nature's celestial spring. ~ Walter Scott

A rusty nail placed near a faithful compass, will sway it from the truth, and wreck the argosy. ~ Walter Scott

It will be just like Duncan Mac-Girdie's mare,' said Evan, 'if your ladyships please, he wanted to use her by degrees to live without meat, and just as he had put her on a straw a day the poor thing died! ~ Walter Scott

The education of our hero, Edward Waverley, was of a nature somewhat desultory. In infancy his health suffered, or was supposed to suffer (which is quite the same thing), by the air of London. ~ Walter Scott

And Miriam also refused to be approached. She was afraid of being set at nought, as by her own brothers. The girl was romantic in her soul. Everywhere was a Walter Scott heroine being loved by men with helmets or with plumes in their caps. She herself was something of a princess turned into a swine-girl in her own imagination. And she was afraid lest this boy, who, nevertheless, looked something like a Walter Scott hero, who could paint and speak French, and knew what algebra meant, and who went by train to Nottingham every day, might consider her simply as the swine-girl, unable to perceive the princess beneath; so she held aloof. ~ D.H. Lawrence

There never will exist anything permanently noble and excellent in the character which is a stranger to resolute self-denial. ~ Walter Scott

Merrily, merrily goes the bark On a breeze from the northward free, So shoots through the morning sky the lark, Or the swan through the summer sea. ~ Walter Scott

He that is without name,without friend,without coin,without country,is still at least a man;and he that has all these is no more ~ Walter Scott

Some feelings are to mortals given With less of earth in them than heaven. ~ Walter Scott

Where is the coward that would not dare to fight for such a land as Scotland? ~ Walter Scott

The race of humankind would perish did they cease to aid each other. ~ Walter Scott

And ne er did Grecian chisel trace A Nymph, a naiad or a grace Of finer form or lovelier face ... ~ Walter Scott

What skilful limner e'er would choose To paint the rainbow's varying hues, Unless to mortal it were given To dip his brush in dyes of heaven? ~ Walter Scott

What can they see in the longest kingly line in Europe, save that it runs back to a successful soldier? ~ Walter Scott

Ambition is no cure for love! ~ Walter Scott

I am the very child of caprice and folly. ~ Walter Scott

When a man has not a good reason for doing a thing, he has one good reason for letting it alone. ~ Walter Scott

But I would have vengeance to fall on the head, not on the hand; on the tyrannical and oppressive government which designed and directed these premeditated and reiterated insults, not on the tools of office which they employed in the execution of the injuries they designed you. ~ Walter Scott

God of Jacob! it is the meeting of two fierce tides - the conflict of two oceans moved by adverse winds! ~ Walter Scott

A fool's wild speech confounds the wise. ~ Walter Scott

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. ~ Walter Scott

Here he produced two immense folded packets, which appeared each to contain a whole ream of closely written manuscript. They had been the labour of the worthy man's whole life; and never were labour and zeal more absurdly wasted. ~ Walter Scott

Wounds sustained for the sake of conscience carry their own balsam with the blow. ~ Walter Scott

One crowded hour of glorious life is worth an age without a name ~ Walter Scott

All my life long I have been more melted by the distress under which a strong, proud, and powerful mind is compelled to give way, than by the more easily excited sorrows of softer dispositions. ~ Walter Scott

Now I protest to thee, gentle reader, that I entirely dissent from Francisco de Ubeda in this matter, and hold it the most useful quality of my pen, that it can speedily change from grave to gay, and from description and dialogue to narrative and character. So that if my quill displays no other properties of its mother-goose than her mutability, truly I shall be well pleased; and I conceive that you, my worthy friend, will have no occasion for discontent. From ~ Walter Scott

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? ~ Walter Scott

There is a southern proverb - fine words butter no parsnips. ~ Walter Scott

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. ~ Walter Scott

Fools should not have chapping sticks'; that is, weapons of offence. ~ Walter Scott

Contentions fierce, Ardent, and dire, spring from no petty cause. ~ Walter Scott

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! ~ Walter Scott

Here is neither want of appetite nor mouths,
Pray heaven we be not scant of meat or mirth. ~ Walter Scott