Walter Scott Quotes

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.

My hope, my heaven, my trust must be, My gentle guide, in following thee.

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

The sickening pang of hope deferr'd.

Every hour has its end.

If you keep a thing seven years, you are sure to find a use for it.

Heaven know its time; the bullet has its billet

Those who are too idle to read, save for the purpose of amusement, may in these works acquire some acquaintance with history, which, however inaccurate, is better than none.

One or two of these scoundrel statesmen should be shot once a-year, just to keep the others on their good behavior.

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.

I was born a Scotsman and a bare one. Therefore I was born to fight my way in the world.

Fortune may raise up or abuse the ordinary mortal, but the sage and the soldier should have minds beyond her control.

I like a highland friend who will stand by me not only when I am in the right, but when I am a little in the wrong.

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.

The paths of virtue, though seldom those of worldly greatness, are always those of pleasantness and peace.

Give me an honest laugher.

Come forth, old man,--thy daughter's side Is now the fitting place for thee: When time has quell'd the oak's bold pride, The youthful tendril yet may hide, The ruins of the parent tree.

And better had they ne'er been born, Who read to doubt, or read to scorn.

A good deal of philanthropy arises in general from mere vanity and love of distinction gilded over to others and to themselves with some show of benevolent sentiment.

Commend me to sterling honesty though clad in rags.

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

Who, noteless as the race from which he sprung, Saved others' names, but left his own unsung.

Certainly," quoth Athelstane, "women are the least to be trusted of all animals, monks and abbots excepted.

Chess is a sad waste of brains.

Fair play is a jewel.

Blud's thicker than water.

As good play for nothing, you know, as work for nothing.

Threatened folk live long.

It is more difficult to look upon victory than upon battle.

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.

A fool's wild speech confounds the wise.

God forgive me for having thought it possible that a schoolmaster could be out and out a rational being.

For Love will still be lord of all.

Thou and I are but the blind instruments of some irresistible fatality, that hurries us along, like goodly vessels driving before the storm, which are dashed against each other, and so perish.

He who indulges his sense in any excesses renders himself obnoxious to his own reason; and, to gratify the brute in him, displeases the man, and sets his two natures at variance.

All is possible for those who dare to die!

For he that does good, having the unlimited power to do evil, deserves praise not only for the good which he performs, but for the evil which he forbears.

Look at a gown of gold, and you will at least get a sleeve of it.

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

A few drops sprinkled on the torch of love make the flame blaze the brighter.

Oh, on that day, that wrathful day, When man to judgment wakes front clay, Be Thou, O Christ, the sinner's stay, Though heaven and earth shall pass away.

And children know, Instinctive taught, the friend and foe.

Love will subsist on wonderfully little hope but not altogether without it.

Though varying wishes, hopes, and fears, Fever'd the progress of these years, Yet now, days, weeks, and months but seem The recollection of a dream.

What an ornament and safeguard is humor! Far better than wit for a poet and writer. It is a genius itself, and so defends from the insanities.

A mother's pride, a father's joy.

Love, to her ear, was but a name, Combin'd with vanity and shame; Her hopes, her fears, her joys, were all Bounded within the cloister wall.

Oh, poverty parts good company.

Still from the sire the son shall hear Of the stern strife, and carnage drear, Of Flodden's fatal field, When shiver'd was fair Scotland's spear, And broken was her shield!

But woe awaits a country when She sees the tears of bearded men.