Top 1200 Quotes & Sayings by Scottish Authors - Page 9

The tragedy of life and of the world is not that men do not know God; the tragedy is that, knowing Him, they still insist on going their own way.

Success isn't about reaching your goals; it's about striving for things, like the joy of trying to raise a family, trying to be a successful singer, trying to write good songs, trying to be a better person. It's that old thing about life being about the journey, not the destination.

In Scotland over many years we have cultivated through our justice system what I hope can be described as a 'culture of compassion.' On the other hand, there still exists in many parts of the U.S., if not nationally, an attitude towards the concept of justice which can only be described as a 'culture of vengeance.'

Bald is the new black!

There are many collaborations I'd like to explore. One is to co-write a rap concerto with Eminem.

I'm always very excited by something that's a curveball or from left field.

If you didn't join for the girls, choose another profession.

When I met Bob Dylan, I was definitely impressed. This guy had come from the American folk world, but he was very schooled in poetry, too. He'd studied the Beat poets, of course. I grew up in the British bohemian scene. Dylan grew up in the American bohemian scene. So I was very pleased to meet such a guy.

In real life, I'm very rational, and I'm not very dramatic.

Wisdom, prudence, forethought, these are essential. But not second to these that noble courage which adventures the right, and leaves the consequences to God.

The principle part of faith is patience.

We live in a Newtonian world of Einsteinian physics ruled by Frankenstein logic.

Because I write prose, when I sat down to write a comic, it feels like my brain's working differently. It actually feels like different bits of my head are springing into action.

Never does one feel oneself so utterly helpless as in trying to speak comfort for great bereavement. I will not try it. Time is the only comforter for the loss of a mother.

I've played in pipe bands in Scotland, and I've always played guitars and drums and stuff.

It's hell with that big beard and stuff. That's the one bit I don't like. Either you take out at lunch or you don't eat. So I opted not to eat, 'cause having to put it on twice is horrific.

If you have any opinions at all or if you're even remotely verbal then they're going to call you fiery.

We take nothing to the grave with us, but a good or evil conscience... It is true, terrors of conscience cast us down; and yet without terrors of conscience we cannot be raised up again.

If I or my soldiers have plundered or done injury to the houses or to the ministers of religion, I repent me of my sin - but it is not of Edward of England that I shall ask pardon.

If I had a long-term partner, I don't think I'd be an actor. It'd be too much of a strain; you have to work too hard to balance that life with a family and a mortgage and all that stuff - it would be too much.

A couple of taxi drivers have asked me if we can survive financially as an independent nation. I say, how come we are more stupid than Denmark or Finland or Sweden? They've all got the same amount of people. Are we all going to down tools? Is everybody in Scotland going to stop working?

A man without a goal is like a ship without a rudder.

I'm teetotal and a vegetarian, which is sometimes a surprise to people who meet me expecting me to resemble one of the characters in my books.

If you put lots of auto-tune on your voice on the album, people are going to be disappointed when they come to see you live. The imperfections make it better, more natural.

Both of my parents had a change of career. My mum was a nurse, and now she's a college lecturer.

I'm definitely open to change, but at the same time I am quite stubborn.

Writing for adults often means just increasing the swearing - but find an alternative to swearing and you've probably got a better line.

Unlike novel characters, comic book characters last an eternity. When a character is changed beyond recognition, there's no longer the merchandising aspect.

I don't find offensive that I'm being labelled a babe by blokes. I'm absolutely flattered.

In my heart I'm just a lucky waitress.

If the price is very cheap then it's almost certainly a fake.

The movie business is very much like that: people in authority making purely emotional decisions instead of interesting rational ones.

Dictators can fix up their entire families in good jobs, in or around government, and often do. In democracies, such a practice is frowned upon. Privileged access to the corridors of power through family connections and a kind of old boys' network, is also deemed an abuse of power, and so it is.

Everyone needs an opportunity in life. I was given an opportunity as a manager, and you try and take it.

All of my characters, I feel, have some essence of who I am in them.

Burnout is grist to the mill. I write every day, for most of the day, so it's just about turning into metaphor whatever's going on in my life, in the world, and in my head. Every nightmare, every moment of grief or joy or failure, is a moment I can convert into cash via words.

Science makes no pretension to eternal truth or absolute truth.

I grew up on film noir.

I am a social democrat - I believe in pursuing greater equality and tackling social justice - but... you can't do that unless you have got a strong economy, unless you have got a vibrant business base earning the wealth that makes that possible.

Any opportunity I can get to showcase different characters, I absolutely love.

I spent a lot of time at my grandparents in the school holidays, and the only books in the house were a copy of the Bible and Agatha Christie's 'Murder at the Vicarage.' I developed a taste for murder mysteries and then later discovered libraries, second-hand bookshops, and jumble sales.

I've got anxiety and I don't sleep so I've been trying to balance this insomnia where I stay awake for three or four days and you don't want to really leave the house and stuff and you've got to go out and do a gig.

It is unfortunate I haven't been able to get the game time I wanted at West Brom but I need to stay focused, progress, and try not to think about it too much.

I want to keep audiences off balance, so they don't know who I am or how to take me. If I duck and weave, as Frank Bruno might say, I'll have a longer shelf life.

I've been a massive obsessive about jazz singers all my life.

I've been in many auditions thinking, 'God, do I have to take my shirt off?'

I used to think everything had to be perfect, but now I know perfection doesn't exist - life comes with bumps and grazes.

A good nationalism has to depend on a principle of the common people, on myths of a struggling commonality.

It is strange how your understanding of a play changes. It normally happens after a performance and you suddenly think, 'So that's what that line really means' - it's like a light going on.

I have just been working with Maggie Gyllenhaal, who is also a mum, on a movie called 'Hysteria.' She is everywhere because of the nature of film work. Not that I'm name dropping or anything like that. I have to pinch myself when I remember who I've been working with.

But my most favourite pursuit, after my daily exertions at the Foundry, was Astronomy. There were frequently clear nights when the glorious objects in the Heavens were seen in most attractive beauty and brilliancy.

Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus.

It's unhealthy for people to never express any kind of negativity or doubt. To have balance, you need to address that side of your thoughts as well as the positive. Otherwise, you tend toward crazy.

Crime fiction is the fiction of social history. Societies get the crimes they deserve.

Throughout the whole vegetable, sensible, and rational world, whatever makes progress towards maturity, as soon as it has passed that point, begins to verge towards decay.

Procrastination is probably my worst habit out of many. Especially when it comes to paperwork.

I've often felt I've been born out of my time, and when I started Fairground Attraction in the 1980s, I wanted to be a 1940s jazz singer.

Christ, he was paranoid about criticism. I used to say: why doesn't he worry about the team and forget what people are saying? He got Phil Thompson, who was a kid coming through when I was a Liverpool player, to have a go at me. So now I don't talk to him.

I think I am becoming obsessive-compulsive. David Beckham apparently turns all the Diet Coke cans in his fridge to face the same way every morning, and I nerdily sharpen all the pencils in my pot before sitting down to work.

No jealousy their dawn of love overcast, nor blasted were their wedded days with strife; each season looked delightful as it past, to the fond husband and the faithful wife.