Robert Burns Quotes

183 Sourced Quotes

The golden Hours on angel wings
Flew o'er me and my Dearie;
For dear to me as light and life
Was my sweet Highland Mary.

Robert Burns
Some rhyme a neebor's name to lash;
Some rhyme (vain thought!) for needfu' cash;
Some rhyme to court the countra clash,
An' raise a din;
For me, an aim I never fash;
I rhyme for fun.

Robert Burns
John Anderson my jo, John,
When we were first acquent,
Your locks were like the raven,
Your bonny brow was brent.

Robert Burns
A fig for those by law protected!
liberty's a glorious feast!
Courts for cowards were erected,
Churches built to please the priest.

Robert Burns
I love drinking now and then. It defecates the standing pool of thought. A man perpetually in the paroxysm and fears of inebriety is like a half-drowned stupid wretch condemned to labor unceasingly in water; but a now-and-then tribute to Bacchus is like the cold bath, bracing and invigorating.

Robert Burns
Here, some are thinkin' on their sins,
An' some upo' their claes.

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

Robert Burns
Where sits our sulky, sullen dame,
Gathering her brows like gathering storm,
Nursing her wrath to keep it warm.

Robert Burns
Gin a body meet a body
Comin thro' the rye,
Gin a body kiss a body
Need a body cry?

Robert Burns
Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the North, The birthplace of valor, the country of worth! Wherever I wander, wherever I rove, The hills of the Highlands for ever I love.

Robert Burns
Ye banks and braes o' bonny Doon,
How can ye bloom sae fresh and fair?
How can ye chant, ye little birds,
And I sae weary fu' o' care!
Thou'll break my heart, thou warbling bird,
That wantons thro' the flowering thorn!
Thou minds me o' departed joys,
Departed never to return.

Robert Burns
Oh wad some power the giftie gie us To see oursels as ithers see us! It wad frae monie a blunder free us, An' foolish notion.

Robert Burns
Now simmer blinks on flowery braes, And o'er the crystal streamlet plays.

Robert Burns
The minister kiss'd the fiddler's wife,
An' could na preach for thinkin' o't.

Robert Burns
Green grow the rashes, O;
Green grow the rashes, O;
The sweetest hours that e'er I spend
Are spent among the lasses, O.

Robert Burns
But, oh! fell death's untimely frost,
That nipt my flower sae early.

Robert Burns
O, had I power like inclination, I'd heeze thee up a constellation! To canter with the Sagitarre, Or loop the Ecliptic like a bar, Or turn the Pole like any arrow...

Robert Burns
Ambition is a meteor-gleam; Fame a restless airy dream; Pleasures, insects on the wing Round Peace, th' tend rest flow'r of spring.

Robert Burns
For gold the merchant ploughs the main,
The farmer ploughs the manor.

Robert Burns
The honest man, though e'er sae poor,
Is king o' men, for a' that!

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

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

Robert Burns
Ayr, gurgling, kiss'd his pebbled shore, O'erhung with wild woods, thick'ning green; The fragrant birch and hawthorn hoar Twin'd am'rous round the raptur'd scene.

Robert Burns
Green, slender, leaf-clad holly-boughs Were twisted graceful', round her brows; I took her for some Scottish Muse, By that same token; And come to stop those reckless vows, Would soon be broken.

Robert Burns
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.

Robert Burns
If Heaven a draught of heavenly pleasure spare,
One cordial in this melancholy vale,
'T is when a youthful, loving, modest pair
In other's arms breathe out the tender tale

Robert Burns
Yon rose-buds in the morning-dew, How pure amang the leaves sae green!

Robert Burns
I'll be merry and free, I'll be sad for nae-body; If nae-body cares for me, I'll care for nae-body.

Robert Burns
Humid seal of soft affections,
Tend'rest pledge of future bliss,
Dearest tie of young connections,
Love's first snow-drop, virgin kiss.

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

Robert Burns