Quotes from Walter Scott

I desire no man's regard, Mr. Rashleigh, on such terms as must sink me in my own.

Does the sense of being pleased and amused blunt our faculties of perception and discrimination of character, that I can only compare it to the taste of certain fruits, at once luscious and poignant, which renders our palate totally unfit for relishing or distinguishing the viands which are subsequently subjected to its criticism.

I will not slip my dog before the game's a-foot.—But

As living in this ideal world became daily more delectable to our hero, interruption was disagreeable in proportion. The

Non omnis moriar

at that moment experienced the painful internal feeling of that peculiar spedes of shame, which well-constructed minds feel when they see others express a great assumption of importance, with a confidence that they are exciting admiration, when in fact they are only exposing themselves to ridicule.

Success or failure in business is caused more by mental attitude even than by mental capabilities.

Do you dishonour his house by acts of violence more becoming the wolves of the mountains, than beings to whom the great Creator has given a form after His own likeness, and an immortal soul to be saved by penance and repentance?

Arthur, arming himself with his good sword, sallied out to the lawn in front of the Landamman's dwelling, amid the magic dawn of a beautiful harvest morning in the Swiss mountains. The sun was just about to kiss the top of the most gigantic of that race of Titans, though the long shadows still lay on the rough grass, which crisped under the young man's feet with a strong intimation of frost.

his avowal of follies and excess seemed uttered rather in the spirit of wounded pride, than in that of contrition.

O rake not up the ashes of our fathers! Implacable resentment was their crime, And grievous has the expiation been.

his very benevolence is selfish;

We are so apt, in our engrossing egotism, to consider all those accessories which are drawn around us by prosperity, as pertaining and belonging to our own persons, that the discovery of our unimportance, when left to our own proper resources, becomes inexpressibly mortifying.

Traitor's word never yet hurt honest cause

But it is wonderful what mischief may be done by only two words

If hell...has one complexion more hideous than another, it is where villainy is masked by hypocracy

sufficient for the day was the evil thereof.

lawyer's anxiety about the fate of the most interesting cause has seldom spoiled either his sleep or digestion.

Ye never saw dull weather clear without a shower; and if the world is turned upside down, why, honest men have the better chance to cut bread out of it.

This, indeed, Charles Edward considered as a lady's secret; for although Rose's letter was couched in the most cautious and general terms, and professed to be written merely from motives of humanity and zeal for the Prince's service, yet she expressed so anxious a wish that she should not be known to have interfered, that the Chevalier was induced to suspect the deep interest which she took in Waverley's safety.

The beautiful pass of Leny, near Callander, in Monteith, would, in some respects, answer this description.]

SHALL this be a short or a long chapter?—This is a question in which you, gentle reader, have no vote, however much you may be interested in the consequences; just as probably you may (like myself) have nothing to do with the imposing a new tax, excepting the trifling circumstance of being obliged to pay it. More

there are stratagems in law as well as war.

my principal fault was an unconquerable pitch of pride, which exposed me to frequent mortification.