But the cheerful Spring came kindly on/ And show'rs began to fall:/ John Barleycorn got up again/ And sore surpris'd them all.
--John Barleycorn

Critics! Those cut-throat bandits in the paths of fame.

Dare to be honest and fear no labor.

Learn taciturnity and let that be your motto!

O wad some power the giftie gie us/ To see oursel's as others see us.

O, my luve's like a red red rose/ That's newly sprung in June:/ O my luve's like the melodie/ That's sweetly played in tune.

Some rhyme a neebor's name to lash;/ Some rhyme (vain thought!) for needfu' cash;/ Some rhyme to court the country clash,/ An' raise a din;/ For me, an aim I never fash;/ I rhyme for fun.

Suspense is worst than disappointment.

There is no such uncertainty as a sure thing.

Auld Nature swears the lovely dears
Her noblest work she classes, O;
Her 'prentice han' she tried on man,
And then she made the lasses, O! 1
--Green grow the Rashes.

Some books are lies frae end to end.
--Death and Dr. Hornbook.

The best laid schemes o' mice and men
Gang aft a-gley;
And leave us naught but grief and pain
For promised joy.
--To a Mouse.

Man's inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn.
--Man was made to Mourn.

O Life! how pleasant is thy morning,
Young Fancy's rays the hills adorning!
Cold-pausing Caution's lesson scorning,
We frisk away,
Like schoolboys at th' expected warning,
To joy and play.
--Epistle to James Smith.

Misled by fancy's meteor ray,
By passion driven;
But yet the light that led astray
Was light from heaven.
--The Vision.