The Infinite Library

“The joy of my heart is to 'study men, their manners, and their ways,' and for this darling object I cheerfully sacrifice every other consideration.”

“To see her is to love her, And love but her forever; For Nature made her what she is, And never made another.”

“It is natural for a young fellow to like the acquaintance of females and customary for him to keep them company when occasion serves. Some one of them is more agreeable to him than the rest; there is something, he knows not what, pleases him, he knows not how, in her company. This I take to be what is called love with the greatest part of us.”

“I am very willing to admit that I have some poetical abilities, and as few - if any - writers, either moral or political, are intimately acquainted with the classes of mankind among whom I have chiefly mingled, I may have seen men and manners in a different phasis from what is common, which may assist originality of thought.”

“Flow gently, sweet Afton, amang thy green braes, Flow gently, I'll sing thee a song in thy praise; My Mary's asleep by thy murmuring stream, Flow gently, sweet Afton, disturb not her dream. Thou stock dove whose echo resounds thro' the glen, Ye wild whistly blackbirds in yon thorny den, Thou green crested lapwing thy screaming forbear, I charge you, disturb not my slumbering fair. How lofty, sweet Afton, thy neighboring hills, Far mark'd with the courses of clear winding rills; There daily I wander as noon rises high, My flocks and my Mary's sweet cot in my eye. How pleasant thy banks and green valleys below, Where, wild in the woodlands, the primroses blow; There oft, as mild evening weeps over the lea, The sweet-scented birk shades my Mary and me. Thy crystal stream, Afton, how lovely it glides, And winds by the cot where my Mary resides; How wanton thy waters her snowy feet lave, As, gathering sweet flowerets, she stems thy clear wave. Flow gently, sweet Afton, amang thy green braes, Flow gently, sweet river, the theme of my lays; My Mary's asleep by thy murmuring stream, Flow gently, sweet Afton, disturb not her dreams.”

“There is no such uncertainty as a sure thing.”

“The appellation of a Scottish Bard is by far my highest pride; to continue to deserve it is my most exalted ambition.”

“But deep this truth impress'd my mind: Thro' all His works abroad, The heart benevolent and kind The most resembles God.”

“I pick my favourite quotations and store them in my mind as ready armour, offensive or defensive, amid the struggle of this turbulent existence.”

“O thou great, unknown Power! Thou Almighty God, who hast lighted up reason in my breast and blessed me with immortality! I have frequently wandered from that order and regularity necessary for the perfection of thy works, yet thou hast never left me nor forsaken me.”

“Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie, O, what a panic's in thy breastie!”

“If there is another world, he lives in bliss If there is none, he made the best of this.”

“There is nothing in the whole frame of man which seems to me so unaccountable as that thing called conscience.”

“Affliction's sons are brothers in distress; A brother to relieve, how exquisite the bliss!”

“In my conscience, I believe that my heart has been so oft on fire that it is absolutely vitrified.”

“Suspicion is a heavy armor and with its weight it impedes more than it protects.”

“Some hae meat and canna eat, And some wad eat that want it, But we hae meat and we can eat, And sae the Lord be thankit.”

“Suspense is worse than disappointment.”

“And there begins a lang digression about the lords o' the creation.”

“My love is like a red, red rose That's newly sprung in June: My love is like the melody That's sweetly played in tune. How fair art thou, my bonnie lass, So deep in love am I; And I will love thee still, my dear, Till all the seas gang dry. Till all the seas gang dry, my dear, And the rocks melt with the sun; I will love thee still, my dear, While the sands of life shall run. And fare thee weel, my only love. And fare thee weel awhile! And I will come again, my love, Though it were ten thousand mile.”

“There is scarcely anything to which I am so feelingly alive as the honour and welfare of my country, and, as a poet, I have no higher enjoyment than singing her sons and daughters.”

“Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled, Scots, wham Bruce has aften led, Welcome to your gory bed Or to victorie.”

“There is no such uncertainty as a sure thing.”

“O Life! thou art a galling load, Along a rough, a weary road, to wretches such as I.”

“Man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn!”

“Firmness in enduring and exertion is a character I always wish to possess. I have always despised the whining yelp of complaint and cowardly resolve.”

“I foresee that poverty and obscurity probably await me, and I am in some measure prepared and daily preparing to meet them.”

“Gie me a spark o' nature's fire, that's a' the learning I desire.”

“The wide world is all before us - but a world without a friend.”

“His locked, lettered, braw brass collar, Shewed him the gentleman and scholar.”

“Oh, wad some power the giftie gie us To see oursels as ithers see us! It wad frae monie a blunder free us, And foolish notion.”

“The snowdrop and primrose our woodlands adorn, and violets bathe in the wet o' the morn.”

“Let them cant about decorum, Who have characters to lose!”

“Fortune, if thou’ll but gie me still Hale breeks, a scone, an whisky gill, An’ rowth o’ rhyme to rave at will, Take a’ the rest, An’ deal’t about as thy blind skill Directs thee best.”