Quotes from Hugh MacDiarmid

It is time we in Scotland put England in its proper place and instead of our leaning on England and taking inspiration from her, we should lean and turn to Europe, for it is there our future prosperity lies.

Football fanaticism and high intellect seldom go together.

There are plenty of ruined buildings in the world but no ruined stones.

But now I know it is the earthAnd not the water that is unstable,For at every rise and fall of the pellucid tideIt seems as though it were the shingleAnd the waving forest of sea-growthThat moves—and not the water!

The inward gates of a bird are always open.It does not know how to shut them.That is the secret of its song,But whether any man's are ajar is doubtful.

The cornet solo of our Gaelic islandsWill sound out every now and againThrough all eternity.I have heard it and am content for ever.

And until that day comes every true man's place/ is to reject all else and be with the lowest,/ the poorest - in the bottom of that deepest of wells/ in which alone is truth; in which is truth only - truth that should shine like the sun,/ with a monopoly of movement, and a sound like talking to God.

We are so easily baffled by appearances And do not realize that these stones are one with the stars.

And let the lesson be - to be yersel's, Ye needna fash gin it's to be ocht else. To be yersel's - and to mak' that worth bein' Nae harder job to mortals has been gi'en.

For ilka thing a man can be or think or dae Aye leaves a million mair unbeen, unthocht, undune.

We have no use for emotions, let alone sentiments, but are solely concerned with passions.

The [Second World] war may thus have acted as a forcing-bed, bringing to somewhat speedier development what was already securely rooted in the circumstances of our nation; and in this sense it may, perhaps, be said that: "The Scottish Renaissance was conceived in the First World War and sprang into lusty life in the Second World War.

Our principal writers have nearly all been fortunate in escaping regular education.