Robert Burns Quotes

But Mousie, thou art no thy lane In proving foresight may be vain The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang aft agley An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain For promis'd joy!

The heart that is generous and kind most resembles God.

When matters are desperate we must put on a desperate face.

Farewell, my friends! farewell, my foes! My peace with these, my love with those. The bursting tears my heart declare; Farewell, the bonnie banks of Ayr.

I'm truly sorry man's dominion has broken Nature's social union.

Misled by fancy's meteor ray, By passion driven; But yet the light that led astray Was light from heaven.

Or like the snow falls in the river, A moment white-then melts for ever . . .

My Son, these maxims make a rule An lump them ay thegither: The Rigid Righteous is a fool, The Rigid Wise anither.

O Scotia! my dear, my native soil! For whom my warmest wish to Heaven is sent

But facts are chiels that winna ding, An' downa be disputed.

If there 's a hole in a' your coats, I rede ye tent it; A chiel 's amang ye takin' notes, And, faith, he 'll prent it.

O Life! thou art a galling load, Along a rough, a weary road, To wretches such as I!

A mind that is conscious of its integrity scorns to say more than it means to perform.

The upright, honest-hearted man Who strives to do the best he can, Need never fear the church's ban Or hell's damnation.

Gars auld claes look amaist as weel's the new.

Just now I've taen the fit o' rhyme / My barmie noddle's working prime.

Kings may be blest, but Tam was glorious, O'er a' the ills o' life victorious.

Yon rosebuds in the morning-dew, how pure amang the leaves sae green!

Morality, thou deadly bane,Thy tens o' thousands thou has slain!

Inspiring bold JohnBarleycorn! What dangers thou canst make us scorn! Wi' usquebae, we'll face the devil!

Suspense is worse than disappointment.

Their sighing, canting, grace-proud faces, their three-mile prayers, and half-mile graces.

Even every ray of hope destroyed and not a wish to gild the gloom.

Love's first snow-drop, virgin kiss.

What's done we partly may compute, But know not what's resisted.

Affliction's sons are brothers in distress; A brother to relieve, how exquisite the bliss!

To see her is to love her, And love but her forever; For nature made her what she is, And never made anither!

Nae man can tether time or tide.

Look abroad through Nature's range, Nature's mighty law is change.

Painters and poets have liberty to lie.

The wide world is all before us - but a world without a friend.

The wisest man the warl' e'er saw, He dearly loved the lasses, O.

Critics! Those cut-throat bandits in the paths of fame.

Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled, Scots, wham Bruce has aften led, Welcome to your gory bed, Or to victory! Now 's the day and now 's the hour; See the front o' battle lour.

Nature's law, That man was made to mourn. Man's inhumanity to man Makes countless thousands mourn! O Death, the poor man's dearest friend, The kindest and the best!

To step aside is human.

Ye Hypocrites, are these your pranks To murder men and gie God thanks Desist for shame, proceed no further God won't accept your thanks for murder.

God knows, I'm not the thing I should be, Nor am I even the thing I could be, But twenty times I rather would be An atheist clean, Than under gospel colours hid be Just for a screen.

From scenes like these old Scotia's grandeur springs, That makes her loved at home, revered abroad: Princes and lords are but the breath of kings, "An honest man 's the noblest work of God."

Morality, thou deadly bane, Thy tens o' thousands thou hast slain! Vain is his hope, whose stay an' trust is In moral mercy, truth, and justice!

Chords that vibrate sweetest pleasure Thrill the deepest notes of woe.

Gin a body meet a body Coming thro' the rye, Gin a body kiss a body— Need a body cry?

O, Life! how pleasant is thy morning, Young Fancy's rays the hills adorning! Cold pausing Caution's lesson scorning, We frisk away, Like schoolboys, at the expected warning, To joy and play.

Some books are lies frae end to end.

See Social-life and Glee sit down, All joyous and unthinking, Till, quite transmugrified, they're grown Debauchery and Drinking

The trout in yonder wimpling burn - That glides, a silver dart, - And, safe beneath the shady thorn, - Defies the anglers art.

Why has a religious turn of mind always a tendency to narrow and harden the heart?

Now Nature hangs her mantle green On every blooming tree, And spreads her sheets o'daisies white Out o'er the grassy lea.

All-cheering Plenty, with her flowing horn, Led yellow Autumn, wreath'd with nodding corn.

Mankind is an unco squad And muckle he may grieve thee.