Scottish Author Quotes

By the blended power Of gravitation and projection, saw The whole in silent harmony revolve. And ruled unerring by that single power Which draws the stone projected to the ground.

James Thomson (poet)

That nicht he sleipit never ane wink,
Bot still did on the Ladie think.

There is a voice in the waters of the great sea. It calls to man continually. Sometimes it thunders in the tempest, when the waves leap high and strong, and the wild winds shriek and roar, as if to force our attention. Sometimes it whispers in the calm, and comes rippling on the shingly beach in a still, small voice, as if to solicit our regard.

R. M. Ballantyne

There are big men, men of intellect, intellectual men, men of talent and men of action; but the great man is difficult to find, and it needs --apart from discernment --a certain greatness to find him.

A man may sink by such slow degrees that, long after he is a devil, he may go on being a good churchman or a good dissenter and thinking himself a good Christian.

George MacDonald

"Who affirms that crystals are alive?" I affirm it, let who will deny: Crystals are engendered, wax and thrive, Wane and wither; I have seen them die.

On earth the living have much to bear; the difference is chiefly in the manner of bearing, and my manner of bearing is far from being the best.

Jane Welsh Carlyle

The noble people will be nobly ruled, and the ignorant and corrupt ignobly.

I cannot help thinking his hypotheses are like inverted pyramids - a great deal resting on very little.

John Cunningham Geikie

He knew by heart every last minute crack on its surface. He had made maps of the ceiling and gone exploring on them; rivers, islands, and continents. He had made guessing games of it and discovered hidden objects; faces, birds, and fishes. He made mathematical calculations of it and rediscovered his childhood; theorems, angles, and triangles. There was practically nothing else he could do but look at it. He hated the sight of it.

Men who use terrorism as a means to power, rule by terror once they are in power.

It is richt facil and eith gait, I the tell,
Forto discend and pas on down to hell:
The blak gettis of Pluto, and that dirk way,
Standis evir oppin and patent nycht and day;
Bot tharfra to return agane on hyght,
And heir abufe recovir this aris licht,
That is difficil wark, thar lawbour lyis.

Storys to rede ar delitabill,
Suppos that thai be nocht bot fabill.

The name of cockroach is a double absurdity, as it is neither a cock nor a roach. The name, indeed, is a contraction of a Lingua-Franca word, which signifies light-shunner, and is therefore peculiarly appropriate to the darkness-loving cockroach.

Wee Willie Winkie rins through the town,
Up stairs and doon stairs in his nicht-gown,
Tirling at the window, crying at the lock,
"Are the weans in their bed, for it's now ten o'clock?"

The typical public schoolboy is acceptable at a dance and invaluable in a shipwreck.

A wet sheet and a flowing sea,
A wind that follows fast,
And fills the white and rustling sail,
And bends the gallant mast.
And bends the gallant mast, my boys,
While like the eagle free
Away the good ship flies, and leaves
Old England on the lee.

Allan Cunningham

If you have a dear one in Heaven your heart yearns to see, do not despair, for you will meet again. The voice you loved to hear, you will hear again. The identity of the one you were near to on Earth remains the same, and instant recognition will be yours as you meet, never to part again. Your beloved one is only lost awhile.

Herbert Lockyer

Destiny can sometimes be history coming back to bite you in the arse.

I wouldn't thank you for a Valentine
I won't wake up early wondering if the postman's been.
Should 10 red-padded satin hearts arrive with sticky sickly saccharine
Sentiments in very vulgar verses I wouldn't wonder if you meant them.

Yet why evoke the spectres of black night
To blot the sunshine of exultant years?

James Thomson (B.V.)

You mightn't happen to have a piece of cheese about you, now? No? Well, many's the long night I've dreamed of cheese-toasted, mostly-and woke up again, and here I were.

Robert Louis Stevenson

The spot of ground on which a man has stood is forever interesting to him.

Alexander Smith

Taste is, in general, considered as that faculty of the human mind by which we perceive and enjoy whatever is beautiful or sublime in the works of nature or art.

Archibald Alison

The world is full of tragedy; and sympathy, a little common sympathy, can do so much to soften the worst of grief. It is for the lack of that, that people despair and go down.