Scottish Quotations

O ye'll tak' the high road, and I'll tak' the low road,
And I'll be in Scotland afore ye,
But me and my true love will never meet again,
On the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond.
Anonymous
The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond

Lord Aberdeen was quite touched when I told him
I was so attached to the dear, dear Highlands and
missed the fine hills so much. There is a great
peculiarity about the Highlands and Highlanders;
and they are such a chivalrous, fine, active people.
Queen Victoria

It's hame and it's hame, hame fain wad I be,
O, hame, hame, hame to my ain countree!
'It's hame and It's hame'
Allan Cunningham.

Freedom all solace to man gives:
He lives at ease that freely lives.
- John Barbour, The Bruce

From the lone shieling of the misty island
Mountains divide us, and the waste of seas--
Yet still the blood is strong, the heart is Highland,
And we in dreams behold the Hebrides!
Fair these broad meads, these hoary woods are grand;
But we are exiles from our fathers' land.
'Canadian Boat Song' translated from the Gaelic in Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine September (1829) 'Noctes Ambrosianae' no. 46 (attributed to John Galt)

They bore within their breasts the grief
That fame can never heal--
The deep, unutterable woe
Which none save exiles feel.
'The Island of the Scots' ( (1849)) st. 12
W. E. Aytoun, (1813 - 1865)

It came with a lass,
and it will pass with a lass.
James V (1512 - 1542) King of Scotland from (1513)
Of the crown of Scotland, on learning of the birth of Mary Queen of Scots, December (1542); in Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie (c. 1500 - 1565) History of Scotland (1728)

Their learning is like bread in a besieged town: every man gets a little, but no man gets a full meal.
Referring to education in Scotland Life of Johnson (J. Boswell), Vol. II, 1775

BOSWELL I do indeed come from Scotland, but I cannot help it... JOHNSON That, Sir, I find, is what a very great many of your countrymen cannot help.
Life of Johnson (J. Boswell), Vol. I, 1763

No, Sir; there were people who died of dropsies, which they contracted in trying to get drunk.
Scornfully criticizing the strength of the wine in Scotland before the Act of Union in response to Boswell's claim that there had been a lot of drunkenness Tour to the Hebrides (J. Boswell), 1773 Samuel Johnson.

Each breeze from foggy mount and marshy plain
Dilutes with drivel every drizzly brain,
Till, burst at length, each wat'ry head o'erflows,
Foul as their soil, and frigid as their snows.
'The Curse of Minerva' ( (1812)) l. 139 (of Scotland)
Lord Byron.

A Scotchman must be a very sturdy moralist, who does not love Scotland better than truth.
A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland ( (1775)) 'Ostig in Sky.' Samuel Johnson.

Mourn, hapless Caledonia, mourn
Thy banished peace, thy laurels torn.
'The Tears of Scotland' (1746)
Tobias Smollett, (1721 - 1771)

Oats. A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.
A Dictionary of the English Language (1755)
Samuel Johnson.

Solventur risu tabulae, tu missus abibis.The case will be dismissed with a laugh. You will get off scot-free.
Satires bk. 2, no. 1, l. 86 (translated by H. R. Fairclough)
Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65 - 8 bc)

There are few more impressive sights in the world than a Scotsman on the make.
J. M. Barrie, What Every Woman Knows, II, 1906

Ye Highlands and ye Lawlands,
O where hae ye been?
They hae slain the Earl of Murray,
And hae laid him on the green.
He was a braw gallant,
And he rid at the ring;
And the bonny Earl of Murray,
O he might hae been a king!
O lang will his Lady
Look owre the Castle Downe,
Ere she see the Earl of Murray
Come sounding through the town!
The Bonny Earl of Murray
Anonymous

In all my travels I never met with any one Scotchman but what was a man of sense. I believe everybody of that country that has any, leaves it as fast as they can.
Francis Lockier, (1667 - 1740)

It is never difficult to distinguish between a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine.
P. G. Wodehouse, (1881 - 1975)

That knuckle-end of England -
that land of Calvin, oat-cakes, and sulphur.
Sydney Smith, (1771 - 1845). British clergyman and essayist. Memoir (Lady Holland), 1855.

We walked up to the house and stood some minutes watching the swallows that flew about restlessly, and flung their shadows upon the sunbright walls of the old building; the shadows glanced and twinkled, interchanged and crossed each other, expanded and shrunk up, appeared and disappeared every instant.
'Recollections of a Tour made in Scotland' 16 August (1803) Dorothy Wordsworth.

Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses; whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings.
A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (1775) 'Inch Kenneth' Samuel Johnson.

O Caledonia! stern and wild,
Meet nurse for a poetic child!
Land of brown heath and shaggy wood,
Land of the mountain and the flood,
Land of my sires! what mortal hand
Can e'er untie the filial band
That knits me to thy rugged strand!
Sir Walter Scott, (1771 - 1832)
Scottish novelist. The Lay of the Last Minstrel, VI, 1805

Nemo me impune lacessit.
No one provokes me with impunity.
Motto of the Crown of Scotland and of all Scottish regiments.

Tender-handed stroke a nettle,
And it stings you for your pains;
Grasp it like a man of mettle,
And it soft as silk remains.
'Verses Written on a Window in Scotland.'
Aaron Hill.(1685 - 1750)

Join a Highland regiment, me boy. The kilt is an unrivalled garment for fornication and diarrhoea.
John Masters, (1914 - 1983)
British writer. Bugles and a Tiger

...to blow the Scots back again into Scotland.
One of his professed objectives for the Gunpowder Plot, referring to the Scottish-born King James I; said when questioned by the King and council immediately after his arrest, 5 Nov 1605 Dictionary of National Biography In justification of the Gunpowder Plot; said when questioned by the King and council immediately after his arrest, 5 Nov 1605 Dictionary of National Biography. Guy Fawkes.

I have been trying all my life to like Scotchmen, and am obliged to desist from the experiment in despair.
Charles Lamb, (1775 - 1834) British essayist. Essays of Elia, `Imperfect Sympathies', 1822

You should make a point of trying every experience once, excepting incest and folk-dancing.
Sir Arnold Bax ( (1883 - 1953)), quoting 'a sympathetic Scot' in Farewell My Youth ( (1943)) p. 17

Had Cain been Scot, God would have changed his doom
Nor forced him wander, but confined him home.
'The Rebel Scot' (1647) John Cleveland, (1613 - 1658)

A chieftain to the Highlands bound
Cries, 'Boatman, do not tarry!
And I'll give thee a silver pound
To row us o'er the ferry.'
'Lord Ullin's Daughter' (1809)
Thomas Campbell, (1777 - 1844)

Let them bestow on every airth a limb;
Then open all my veins, that I may swim
To thee, my Maker! in that crimson lake;
Then place my parboiled head upon a stake -
Scatter my ashes - strew them in the air; -
Lord! since thou know'st where all these atoms are,
I'm hopeful thou'lt recover once my dust,
And confident thou'lt raise me with the just.

Lines written on the Window of his Jail the Night before his Execution 1650. James Graham, Marquis of Montrose (1612 - 1650) Scottish general. He fought for Charles I in the Civil War but his army of highlanders was defeated (1645). He returned from exile on the continent in 1650 but was captured and executed by the parliamentarians.

The aftermath of Culloden exacted penalties
which were to leave a permanent scar on the
Highlands of Scotland in the deliberate extinction
of the Celtic way of life - by killing, destruction,
confiscation and deportation. A tragic time,
unequalled by any other in Scottish history.
Iain Campbell

The Scots are steadfast - not their clime.
Thomas Crawford

We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation.
Voltaire

More Quotes

Return To Quotations Index Page