Hugh MacDiarmid Quotes

15 Sourced Quotes

The rose of all the world is not for me.
I want for my part
Only the little white rose of Scotland
That smells sharp and sweet - and breaks the heart.

Hugh MacDiarmid
The cornet solo of our Gaelic islands Will sound out every now and again Through all eternity. I have heard it and am content for ever.

Hugh MacDiarmid
Scotland small? Our multiform, our infinite Scotland small?
Only as a patch of hillside may be a cliché corner
To a fool who cries 'Nothing but heather!'…

Hugh MacDiarmid
The number of people who can copulate properly may be few; the number who can write well are infinitely fewer.

Hugh MacDiarmid
I must be a Bolshevik
Before the Revolution, but I'll cease to be one quick
When Communism comes to rule the roost,
For real literature can exist only when it's produced
By madmen, hermits, heretics,
Dreamers, rebels, sceptics,
—And such a door of utterance has been given to me
As none may close whosoever they be.

Hugh MacDiarmid
I amna fou' sae muckle as tired - deid dune.
It's gey and hard wark coupin' gless for gless
Wi' Cruivie and Gilsanquhar and the like,
And I'm no' juist as bauld as aince I wes.

Hugh MacDiarmid
The inward gates of a bird are always open.
It does not know how to shut them.
That is the secret of its song,
But whether any man's are ajar is doubtful.

Hugh MacDiarmid
If there's a sword-like sang
That can cut Scotland clear
O a' the warld beside
Rax me the hilt o't here.

For there's nae jewal till
Frae the rest o earth it's free,
Wi the starry separateness
I'd fain to Scotland gie.

Hugh MacDiarmid
But now I know it is the earth And not the water that is unstable, For at every rise and fall of the pellucid tide It seems as though it were the shingle And the waving forest of sea-growth That moves—and not the water!

Hugh MacDiarmid
Auden, MacNeice, Day Lewis, I have read them all,
Hoping against hope to hear the authentic call.
...
And I know the explanation I must pass is this
–You cannot light a match on a crumbling wall.

Hugh MacDiarmid
Man does not cease to interest me
When he ceases to be miserable.
Quite the contrary!
That it is important to aid him
In the beginning goes without saying,
Like a plant it is essential
To water at first,
But this is in order to get it to flower
And I am concerned with the blossom.

Hugh MacDiarmid
I'll ha'e nae hauf-way hoose, but aye be whaur
Extremes meet - it's the only way I ken
To dodge the curst conceit o' bein' richt
That damns the vast majority o' men.

Hugh MacDiarmid
Hold a glass of pure water to the eye of the sun!
…This is the nearest analogy to the essence of human life
Which is even more difficult to see.

Hugh MacDiarmid
There are plenty of ruined buildings in the world but no ruined stones.

Hugh MacDiarmid
In spite of all their kind some elements of worth
With difficulty persist here and there on earth.

Hugh MacDiarmid