Top 301 Quotes & Sayings by Walter Scott - Page 3

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

The Book of Books Within this ample volume lies The mystery of mysteries. Happiest they of human race To whom their God has given grace To read, to fear, to hope, to pray, To lift the latch, to force the way; But better had they ne'er been born That read to doubt or read to scorn.

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

Adversity is, to me at least, a tonic and a bracer.

True love's the gift which God has given to man alone beneath the heaven.

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

Fair play is a jewel.

O Caledonia! stern and wild, Meet nurse for a poetic child! Land of brown heath and shaggy wood; Land of the mountain and the flood!

Blud's thicker than water.

For monarchs seldom sigh in vain.

A rusted nail, placed near the faithful compass, Will sway it from the truth, and wreck the argosy.

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

Good wine needs neither bush nor preface to make it welcome. And they drank the red wine through the helmet barr'd.

A fool's wild speech confounds the wise.

Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking, morn of toil, nor night of waking.

Mystery has great charms for womanhood.

Affection can withstand very severe storms of vigor, but not a long polar frost of indifference.

Woman's faith and woman's trust, Write the characters in dust.

Certainly," quoth Athelstane, "women are the least to be trusted of all animals, monks and abbots excepted.

Every hour has its end.

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.

Chess is a sad waste of brains.

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!

There are those to whom a sense of religion has come in storm and tempest; there are those whom it has summoned amid scenes of revelry and idle vanity; there are those, too, who have heard its "still small voice" amid rural leisure and placid retirement. But perhaps the knowledge which causeth not to err is most frequently impressed upon the mind during the season of affliction.

Vacant heart, and hand, and eye, Easy live and quiet die.

I will suppose that you have no friends to share or rejoice in your success in life — that you cannot look back to those to whom you owe gratitude, or forward to those to whom you ought to afford protection; but it is no less incumbent on you to move steadily in the path of duty — for your active exertions are due not only to society, but in humble titude to the Being who made you a member of it, with powers to serve yourself and others.

Like the dew on the mountain, like the foam on the river, like the bubble on the fountain, thou art gone, and for ever!

As good play for nothing, you know, as work for nothing.

Women are but the toys which amuse our lighter hours---ambition is the serious business of life.

He that follows the advice of reason has a mind that is elevated above the reach of injury; that sits above the clouds, in a calm and quiet ether, and with a brave indifferency hears the rolling thunders grumble and burst under his feet.

Give me an honest laugher.

Perhaps the perusal of such works may, without injustice, be compared with the use of opiates, baneful, when habitually and constantly resorted to, but of most blessed power in those moments of pain and of langour, when the whole head is sore, and the whole heart sick. If those who rail indiscriminately at this species of composition, were to consider the quantity of actual pleasure it produces, and the much greater proportion of real sorrow and distress which it alleviates, their philanthropy ought to moderate their critical pride, or religious intolerance.

Tell that to the marines - the sailors won't believe it.

A thousand fearful images and dire suggestions glance along the mind when it is moody and discontented with itself. Command them to stand and show themselves, and you presently assert the power of reason over imagination.

Oh, on that day, that wrathful day, When man to judgment wakes front clay, Be Thou, O Christ, the sinner's stay, Though heaven and earth shall pass away.

Thou and I are but the blind instruments of some irresistible fatality, that hurries us along, like goodly vessels driving before the storm, which are dashed against each other, and so perish.

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

God forgive me for having thought it possible that a schoolmaster could be out and out a rational being.

Mankind — the race would perish did they cease to aid each other.

O woman! in our hours of ease Uncertain, coy, and hard to please, And variable as the shade By the light quivering aspen made; When pain and anguish wring the brow, A ministering angel thou!

Time rolls his ceaseless course.

In peace, Love tunes the shepherd's reed; In war, he mounts the warrior's steed; In halls, in gay attire is seen; In hamlets, dances on the green. Love rules the court, the camp, the grove, And men below, and saints above; For love is heaven, and heaven is love.

Adversity is like the period of the rain. . . cold, comfortless, unfriendly to people and to animals; yet from that season have their birth the flower, the fruit, the date, the rose and the pomegranate.

Ambition is no cure for love!

For love is heaven and heaven is love.

Who o'er the herd would wish to reign, Fantastic, fickle, fierce, and vain! Vain as the leaf upon the stream, And fickle as a changeful dream; Fantastic as a woman's mood, And fierce as Frenzy's fever'd blood. Thou many-headed monster thing, Oh who would wish to be thy king!

For he that does good, having the unlimited power to do evil, deserves praise not only for the good which he performs, but for the evil which he forbears.

He who indulges his sense in any excesses renders himself obnoxious to his own reason; and, to gratify the brute in him, displeases the man, and sets his two natures at variance.

Look at a gown of gold, and you will at least get a sleeve of it.

And children know, Instinctive taught, the friend and foe.

What an ornament and safeguard is humor! Far better than wit for a poet and writer. It is a genius itself, and so defends from the insanities.

Love will subsist on wonderfully little hope but not altogether without it.

Besides, Rose Bradwardine, beautiful and amiable as we have described her, had not precisely the sort of beauty or merit which captivates a romantic imagination in early youth. She was too frank, too confiding, too kind; amiable qualities, undoubtedly, but destructive of the marvellous, with which a youth of imagination delights to dress the empress of his affections.

For Love will still be lord of all.

There is a southern proverb - fine words butter no parsnips.

All is possible for those who dare to die!

Though varying wishes, hopes, and fears, Fever'd the progress of these years, Yet now, days, weeks, and months but seem The recollection of a dream.

That day of wrath, that dreadful day. When heaven and earth shall pass away.

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

A few drops sprinkled on the torch of love make the flame blaze the brighter.