Walter Scott Quotes

232 Sourced Quotes

I envy thee not thy faith, which is ever in thy mouth but never in thy heart nor in thy practice

Walter Scott
[...] a stone rolled down hill by an idle truant boy [...]. Even such is the course of a narrative like that which you are perusing. The earlier events are studiously dwelt upon, that you, kind reader, may be introduced to the character rather by narrative, than by the duller mdium of direct description; but when the story drwas near its close, we hurry over the circumstances, however important, which your imagination must hvae forestalled, and leave you to suppose those things which it would be abusing your patience to relate at length.

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
To the timid and hesitating everything is impossible because it seems so.

Walter Scott
Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd,
As home his footsteps he hath turn'd,
From wandering on a foreign strand!
If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
For him no Minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonor'd, and unsung.

Walter Scott
Widowed wife, and married maid,
Betrothed, betrayer, and betrayed!

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

Walter Scott
Then hush thee, my darling, take rest while you may, For strife comes with manhood, and waking with day.

Walter Scott
"What remains?" cried Ivanhoe; "Glory, maiden, glory! which gilds our sepulchre and embalms our name."

Walter Scott
I have sometimes thought of the final cause of dogs having such short lives and I am quite satisfied it is in compassion to the human race; for if we suffer so much in losing a dog after an acquaintance of ten or twelve years, what would it be if they were to live double that time?

Walter Scott
And better had they ne'er been born,
Who read to doubt, or read to scorn.

Walter Scott
No pale gradations quench his ray,
No twilight dews his wrath allay.

Walter Scott
Where shall the lover rest,
Whom the fates sever
From his true maiden's breast,
Parted for ever?
Where, through groves deep and high,
Sounds the far billow,
Where early violets die,
Under the willow.

Walter Scott
In prosperous times I have sometimes felt my fancy and powers of language flag, but adversity is to me at least a tonic and a bracer.

Walter Scott
The half hour between waking and rising has all my life proved propitious to any task which was exercising my invention... It was always when I first opened my eyes that the desired ideas thronged upon me.

Walter Scott
Tell that to the marines—the sailors won't believe it.

Walter Scott
The stag at eve had drunk his fill,
Where danced the moon on Monan's rill,
And deep his midnight lair had made
In lone Glenartney's hazel shade.

Walter Scott
It is a strong castle, and strongly guarded; but there is no impossibility to brave men.

Walter Scott
Bear in mind that you commit a crime by injuring even a wicked brother.

Walter Scott
Fight on, brave knights! Man dies, but glory lives! Fight on; death is better than defeat! Fight on brave knights! for bright eyes behold your deeds!

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
The playbill, which is said to have announced the tragedy of Hamlet, the character of the Prince of Denmark being left out.

Walter Scott
A friend always loves, but he who loves is not always a friend.

Walter Scott
Meat eaten without either mirth or music is ill of digestion.

Walter Scott
It's no fish ye're buying, it's men's lives.

Walter Scott