Quotes from Walter Scott

The half hour between waking and rising has all my life proved propitious to any task which was exercising my invention... It was always when I first opened my eyes that the desired ideas thronged upon me.

Death — the last sleep? No, it is the final awakening.

Come one, come all! this rock shall flyFrom its firm base as soon as I.

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

It's no fish ye're buying, it's men's lives.

For a laggard in love, and a dastard in war,Was to wed the fair Ellen of brave Lochinvar.

Soldier, rest! thy warfare o'er,Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking,Dream of battled fields no more,Days of danger, nights of waking.

The stag at eve had drunk his fill,Where danced the moon on Monan's rill,And deep his midnight lair had madeIn lone Glenartney's hazel shade.

A mother's pride, a father's joy.

There is a southern proverb—fine words butter no parsnips.

In listening mood she seemed to stand,The guardian Naiad of the strand.

Hail to the Chief who in triumph advances!

And dar'st thou, then,To beard the lion in his den,The Douglas in his hall?

The way was long, the wind was cold,The Minstrel was infirm and old;His withered cheek, and tresses gray,Seem'd to have known a better day.

Vacant heart, and hand, and eye,Easy live and quiet die.

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.

Nothing is more completely the child of Art than a Garden.

Do not Christians and Heathens, Jews and Gentiles, poets and philosophers, unite in allowing the starry influences?

There is a vulgar incredulity, which in historical matters, as well as in those of religion, finds it easier to doubt than to examine.

He is the best sailor who can steer within fewest points of the wind, and exact a motive power out of the greatest obstacles.

Sea of upturned faces.

Oh, young Lochinvar is come out of the West,Through all the wide Border his steed was the best.

Respect was mingled with surprise,And the stern joy which warriors feelIn foemen worthy of their steel.

With a smile on her lips, and a tear in her eye.