Robert Burns Quotes

183 Sourced Quotes

But to see her was to love her;
Love but her, and love for ever.
Had we never lov'd sae kindly,
Had we never lov'd sae blindly,
Never met—or never parted,
We had ne'er been broken-hearted.

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

Robert Burns
Your lines, I maintain it, are poetry, and good poetry.... Friendship... had I been so blest as to have met with you in time, might have led me - God of love only knows where.

Robert Burns
O saw ye bonnie Lesley,
As she gaed o'er the border?
She's gane, like Alexander,
To spread her conquests farther.

Robert Burns
Not the bee upon the blossom, In the pride o' sunny noon; Not the little sporting fairy, All beneath the simmer moon; Not the poet, in the moment Fancy lightens in his e'e, Kens the pleasure, feels the rapture, That thy presence gi'es to me.

Robert Burns
And my fause luver stole my rose,
But ah! he left the thorn wi' me.

Robert Burns
John Barleycorn got up again,
And sore surprised them all.

Robert Burns
The heart benevolent and kind
The most resembles God.

Robert Burns
The sire turns o'er, wi' patriarchal grace,
The big ha'-Bible, ance his father's pride.

Robert Burns
We twa hae run about the braes,
And pu'd the gowans fine.

Robert Burns
O, gie me the lass that has acres o' charms,
O, gie me the lass wi' the weel-stockit farms.

Robert Burns
I'm truly sorry Man's dominion
Has broken Nature's social union,
An' justifies that ill opinion
Which makes thee startle,
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,
An' fellow-mortal!

Robert Burns
O Death! the poor man's dearest friend,
The kindest and the best!

Robert Burns
It's guid to be merry and wise,
It's guid to be honest and true,
It's guid to support Caledonia's cause
And bide by the buff and the blue.

Robert Burns