“Revenge, the sweetest morsel to the mouth that ever was cooked in hell.”
― Walter Scott
“All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.”
― Sir Walter Scott
“Oh, what a tangled web we weave…when first we practice to deceive.”
― Walter Scott
“Love rules the court, the camp, the grove, and men below, and the saints above, for love is heaven, and heaven is love. ”
― Sir Walter Scott
“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.”
― Walter Scott
“Cats are a mysterious kind of folk.”
― Sir Walter Scott
“Is death the last sleep? No, it is the last and final awakening.”
― Walter Scott
“Many a law, many a commandment have I broken, but my word never.”
― Walter Scott
“Each age has deemed the new-born year
The fittest time for festal cheer.”
― Sir Walter Scott
“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, unhonored, and unsung.”
― Walter Scott
“We are like the herb which flourisheth most when trampled upon”
― Walter Scott
“I have heard men talk about the blessings of freedom,” he said to himself, “but I wish any wise man would teach me what use to make of it now that I have it.”
― 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
“Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive”
― Walter Scott
“Silence, maiden; thy tongue outruns thy discretion.”
― Sir Walter Scott
“The misery of keeping a dog is his dying so soon. But, to be sure, if he lived for fifty years and then died, what would become of me?”
― Sir Walter Scott
“I envy thee not thy faith, which is ever in thy mouth but never in thy heart nor in thy practice”
― Sir Walter Scott
“Chivalry!—why, maiden, she is the nurse of pure and high affection—the stay of the oppressed, the redresser of grievances, the curb of the power of the tyrant —Nobility were but an empty name without her, and liberty finds the best protection in her lance and her sword.”
― Sir 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
“Will future ages believe that such stupid bigotry ever existed!”
― Sir Walter Scott
“Wounds sustained for the sake of conscience carry their own balsam with the blow.”
― Walter Scott
“One hour of life, crowded to the full with glorious action, and filled with noble risks, is worth whole years of those mean observances of paltry decorum, in which men steal through existence, like sluggish waters through a marsh, without either honour or observation.”
― Sir Walter Scott
“We shall never learn to feel and respect our real calling and destiny, unless we have taught ourselves to consider every thing as moonshine, compared with the education of the heart.”
― Sir Walter Scott
“A lawyer without history or literature is a mechanic, a mere working mason; if he possesses some knowledge of these, he may venture to call himself an architect.”
― Sir Walter Scott
“I will tear this folly from my heart, though every fibre bleed as I rend it away!”
― Walter Scott
“One crowded hour of glorious life is worth an age without a name”
― Walter Scott
“In the name of God!” said Gurth, “how came they prisoners? and to whom?”
“Our master was too ready to fight,” said the Jester, “and Athelstane was not ready enough, and no other person was ready at all.”
― Walter Scott
“Heap on more wood! – the wind is chill; But let it whistle as it will, We’ll keep our Christmas merry still.”
― Sir Walter Scott
“Blessed be his name, who hath appointed the quiet night to follow the busy day, and the calm sleep to refresh the wearied limbs and to compose the troubled spirit.”
― Walter Scott
“It was woman that taught me cruelty, and on woman therefore I have exercised it.”
― Walter Scott
“Love will subsist on wonderfully little hope but not altogether without it.”
― Sir Walter Scott
“I forgive you, Sir Knight,” said Rowena, “as a Christian.”
“That means,” said Wamba, “that she does not forgive him at all.”
― Sir Walter Scott
“Breathes there the man with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land.”
― Walter Scott
“Success or failure in business is caused more by the mental attitude even than by mental capacities.”
― Walter Scott
“I have sought but a kindred spirit to share it, and I have found such in thee.”
― Walter Scott
“When true friends meet in adverse hour; ‘Tis like a sunbeam through a shower. A watery way an instant seen, The darkly closing clouds between.”
― Sir Walter Scott
“One or two of these scoundrel statesmen should be shot once a-year, just to keep the others on their good behavior.”
― Sir Walter Scott
“In the wide pile, by others heeded not,
Hers was one sacred solitary spot,
Whose gloomy aisles and bending shelves contain
For moral hunger food, and cures for moral pain.”
― Walter Scott
“My hope, my heaven, my trust must be,
My gentle guide, in following thee.”
― Walter Scott
“come he slow or come he fast it is but death that comes at last”
― Sir Walter Scott
“No word of commiseration can make a burden feel one feather’s weight lighter to the slave who must carry it.”
― Walter Scott
“Once upon a time there lived an old woman, called Janet Gellatley, who was suspected to be a witch, on the infallible grounds that she was very old, very ugly, very poor, and had two sons, one of whom was a poet, and the other a fool, which visitation, all the neighbourhood agreed, had come upon her for the sin of witchcraft.”
― Sir Walter Scott
“Certainly,” quoth Athelstane, “women are the least to be trusted of all animals, monks and abbots excepted.”
― Walter Scott
“A Christmas gambol oft could cheer
The poor man’s heart through half the year.”
― Walter Scott
“Look back, and smile on perils past!”
― Walter Scott
“so wondrous wild, the whole might seem
the scenery of a fairy dream”
― Sir Walter Scott
“The rose is fairest when ‘t is budding new,
And hope is brightest when it dawns from fears;
The rose is sweetest washed with morning dew
And love is loveliest when embalmed in tears.”
― Sir Walter Scott
“The lovers of the chase say that the hare feels more agony during the pursuit of the greyhounds, than when she is struggling in their fangs.”
― Walter Scott
“…having once seen him put forth his strength in battle, methinks I could know him again among a thousand warriors. He rushes into the fray as if he were summoned to a banquet. There is more than mere strength–there seems as if the whole soul and spirit of the champion were given to every blow which he deals upon his enemies. God assoilzie him of the sin of bloodshed! It is fearful, yet magnificent, to behold how the arm and heart of one man can triumph over hundreds.”
― Sir Walter Scott
“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.”
― Sir Walter Scott
“The autumn winds rushing
Waft the leaves that are searest,
But our flower was in flushing,
When blighting was nearest.
Fleet foot on the correi,
Sage counsel in cumber,
Red hand in the foray,
How sound is thy slumber!
Like the dew on the mountain,
Like the foam on the river,
Like the bubble on the fountain,
Thou art gone, and for ever!”
― Sir Walter Scott