Walter Scott Quotes

232 Sourced Quotes

If a faultless poem could be produced, I am satisfied it would tire the critics themselves; and annoy the whole reading world with the spleen.

Walter Scott
When applied to the purposes of indulgence and debauchery, opium rends the nerves, destroys the strength, weakens the intellect, and undermines life. But fear not to use the virtues in the time of need, for the wise man warms him by the same firebrand with which the madman burneth the tent.

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

Walter Scott
In that pleasant district of merry England which is watered by the river Don, there extended in ancient times a large forest, covering the greater part of the beautiful hills and valleys which lie between Sheffield and the pleasant town of Doncaster.

Walter Scott
Honour is a homicide and a bloodspiller, that gangs about making frays in the street; but Credit is a decent honest man, that sits at hame and makes the pat play.

Walter Scott
The lover's pleasure, like that of the hunter, is in the chase, and the brightest beauty loses half its merit, as the flower its perfume, when the willing hand can reach it too easily. There must be doubt; there must be difficulty and danger.

Walter Scott
The tear, down childhood's cheek that flows, Is like the dewdrop on the rose; When next the summer breeze comes by And waves the bush, the flower is dry.

Walter Scott
Woe to the youth whom Fancy gains, Winning from Reason's hand the reins, Pity and woe! for such a mind Is soft contemplative, and kind.

Walter Scott
The praise of the physician... is the recovery of the patient.

Walter Scott
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.

Walter Scott
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.

Walter Scott
The sick chamber of the patient is the kingdom of the physician.

Walter Scott
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

Walter Scott
See yonder rock from which the fountain gushes; is it less compact of adamant, though waters flow from it? Firm hearts have moister eyes.

Walter Scott
What a strange scene if the surge of conversation could suddenly ebb like the tide, and show us the real state of people's minds.

Walter Scott
Good even, good fair moon, good even to thee. I prithee, dear moon, now show to me the form and the features, the speech and degree, of the man that true lover of mine shall be.

Walter Scott
Wounds sustained for the sake of conscience carry their own balsam with the blow.

Walter Scott
It was in the beginning of the month of November, 17--, when a young English gentleman, who had just left the university of Oxford, made use of the liberty afforded him, to visit some parts of the north of England; and curiosity extended his tour into the adjacent frontier of the sister country.

Walter Scott
All live by seeming.
The beggar begs with it, and the gay courtier
Gains land and title, rank and rule, by seeming;
The clergy scorn it not, and the bold soldier
Will eke with it his service.--All admit it,
All practise it; and he who is content
With showing what he is, shall have small credit
In church, or camp, or state.--So wags the world.

Walter Scott
Ridicule, the weapon of all others most feared by enthusiasts of every description, and which from its predominance over such minds, often checks what is absurd, and fully as often smothers that which is noble.

Walter Scott
Contentions fierce, Ardent, and dire, spring from no petty cause.

Walter Scott
He knew, by streamers that shot so bright, That spirits were riding the northern light.

Walter Scott
Chance will not do the work — Chance sends the breeze; But if the pilot slumbers at the helm, The very wind that wafts us toward the port May dash us on the Shelves — The steersman's part is vigilance, Blow it or rough or smooth.

Walter Scott
What various scenes, and O! what scenes of Woe,
Are witness'd by that red and struggling beam!
The fever'd patient, from his pallet low,
Through crowded hospitals beholds it stream;
The ruined maiden trembles at its gleam,
The debtor wakes to thought of gyve and jail,
The love-lorn wretch starts from tormenting dream;
The wakeful mother, by the glimmering pale,
Trims her sick infant's couch, and soothes his feeble wail.

Walter Scott
Methinks I will not die quite happy without having seen something of that Rome of which I have read so much.

Walter Scott
What skilful limner e'er would choose To paint the rainbow's varying hues, Unless to mortal it were given To dip his brush in dyes of heaven?

Walter Scott
As hope and fear alternate chase
Our course through life's uncertain race.

Walter Scott
A slight touch of the cynic in manner and habits, gives the physician, to the common eye, an air of authority which greatly tends to enlarge his reputation.

Walter Scott
Warriors! and where are warriors found, If not on martial Britain's ground? And who, when waked with note of fire, Love more than they the British lyre?

Walter Scott
The deep recess of the wildwood glen, Where roe and red-deer find sheltering den, When the sun is in his power.

Walter Scott