Scott, Sir Walter quotes

1771-1832 British Novelist Poet

Twas Christmas broach d the mightiest ale; twas Christmas told the merriest tale; a Christmas gambol oft could cheer the poor man s heart through half the year.
Scott, Sir Walter
Christmas

Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.
Scott, Sir Walter
Deceit

Faces that have charmed us the most escape us the soonest.
Scott, Sir Walter
Charm

The will to do, the soul to dare.
Scott, Sir Walter
Courage

Come he slow or come he fast. It is but death who comes at last.
Scott, Sir Walter
Death and Dying

Death -- the last sleep? No, it is the final awakening.
Scott, Sir Walter
Death and Dying

Is death the last step? No, it is the final awakening.
Scott, Sir Walter
Death and Dying

Credit is like a looking-glass, which when once sullied by a breath, may be wiped clear again; but if once cracked can never be repaired.
Scott, Sir Walter
Credit

The faces that have charmed us the most escape us the soonest.
Scott, Sir Walter
Faces

To the timid and hesitating everything is impossible because it seems so.
Scott, Sir Walter
Impossibility

Sound, sound the clarion, fill the fife! To all the sensual world proclaim. One crowded hour of glorious life is worth an age without a name.
Scott, Sir Walter
Life and Living

If you have no friends to share or rejoice in your success in life -- if you cannot look back to those whom you owe gratitude, or forward to those to whom you ought to afford protection, still it is no less incumbent on you to move steadily in the path of duty; for your active excretions are due not only to society; but in humble gratitude to the Being who made you a member of it, with powers to save yourself and others.
Scott, Sir Walter
Friends and Friendship

Breathes there the man with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land!
Scott, Sir Walter
Patriotism

There never will exist anything permanently noble and excellent in the character which is a stranger to resolute self-denial.
Scott, Sir Walter
Excellence

When thinking about companions gone, we feel ourselves doubly alone.
Scott, Sir Walter
Loneliness

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.
Scott, Sir Walter
Law and Lawyers

Teach you children poetry; it opens the mind, lends grace to wisdom and makes the heroic virtues hereditary.
Scott, Sir Walter
Poetry and Poets

Each age has deemed the new-born year the fittest time for festal cheer.
Scott, Sir Walter
New Year

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 honor or observation.
Scott, Sir Walter
Participation

Look back, and smile at perils past.
Scott, Sir Walter
Past

We build statues out of snow, and weep to see them melt.
Scott, Sir Walter
Responsibility

But with morning cool repentance came.
Scott, Sir Walter
Repentance

Ridicule often checks what is absurd, and fully as often smothers that which is noble.
Scott, Sir Walter
Ridicule

The race of mankind would perish did they cease to aid each other. We cannot exist without mutual help. All therefore that need aid have a right to ask it from their fellow-men; and no one who has the power of granting can refuse it without guilt.
Scott, Sir Walter
Aid and Assistance

The willow which bends to the tempest, often escapes better than the oak which resists it; and so in great calamities, it sometimes happens that light and frivolous spirits recover their elasticity and presence of mind sooner than those of a loftier character.
Scott, Sir Walter
Adversity

A rusty nail placed near a faithful compass, will sway it from the truth, and wreck the argosy.
Scott, Sir Walter
Association

Ambition breaks the ties of blood, and forgets the obligations of gratitude.
Scott, Sir Walter
Ambition

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

It is wonderful what strength of purpose and boldness and energy of will are roused by the assurance that we are doing our duty.
Scott, Sir Walter
Boldness

Of all vices, drinking is the most incompatible with greatness.
Scott, Sir Walter
Alcohol and Alcoholism

If you once turn on your side after the hour at which you ought to rise, it is all over. Bolt up at once.
Scott, Sir Walter
Discipline