Quotes from Walter Scott

The seductive love of narrative, when we ourselves are the heroes of the events which we tell, often disregards the attention due to the time and patience of the audience, and the best and wisest have yielded to its fascination.

A large stone was then lowered down on the grave, and covered the moderate space now sufficient for the man for whom Europe was once too little.

Let him who will not proffer'd peace receive, Be sated with the plagues which war can give: And well thy hatred of the peace is known, If now thy soul reject the friendship shown. Hoole's Tasso.

It was an aigrette, or plume, composed of two feathers of a vulture, fastened together by an opal, which with the changing light changed with a variability which enchanted the Swiss damsel who had never seen anything resembling it in her life.

The readiest mode to corrupt a Christian man is to bestow upon vice the pity and the praise which are due only to virtue. Your Baron of Roussillon is a monster of cruelty; but your unfortunate lovers were not the less guilty. It is by giving fair names to foul actions that those who would start at real vice are led to practise its lessons, under the disguise of virtue.

The merit was universally attributed to the visit of Lord Oxford, whose timely reprimand had, like the shot of a cannon dispersing foul mists, awakened the Duke from his black and bilious melancholy.

Such are the characters formed in times of civil discord, when the highest qualities, perverted by party spirit, and inflamed by habitual opposition, are too often combined with vices and excesses which deprive them at once of their merit and of their lustre.

But all that a king can give to a people is a smile, such as the sun bestows on the snowy peaks of the Grampian mountains, as distant and as ineffectual. Alas

But patriotism, as it is the fairest, so it is often the most suspicious mask of other feelings;

A tale of manners, to be interesting, must either refer to antiquity so great as to have become venerable, or it must bear a vivid reflection of those scenes which are passing daily before our eyes, and are interesting from their novelty.

Wit, Sir Knight, may do much. He is a quick, apprehensive knave, who sees his neighbours blind side, and knows how to keep the leegage when his passions are blowing high. But valour is a sturdy fellow, that makes all split. He rows against both wind and tide, and makes way notwithstanding; and, therefore, good Sir Knight, while I take advantage of the fair weather in our noble master's temper, I will expect you to bestir yourself when it grows rough.

Chapter XVII The Hold of a Highland Robber

here is the stout Baron Reginald Front-de-Boeuf, whose utter abomination is a Jew; and the good Knight Templar, Brian de Bois-Guilbert, whose trade is to slay Saracens—If these are not good marks of Christianity

the widows of the slain, to the number of eleven score, in deep mourning, riding upon white palfreys, and each bearing her husband's bloody shirt on a spear, appeared

the wife who could be contented with but one half of her husband's affections, had never deserved to engage the slightest share of them.

Chapter X Rose Bradwardine and her Father

Such a visage, joined to the brawny form of the holy man, spoke rather of sirloins and haunches than of pease and pulse.

A lover persevere in his suit under very discouraging circumstances. Affection can withstand very severe storms of rigor, but no a long polar frost of downright indifference. Don't, even with your attractions, try the experiment upon any lover whose faith you value. Love will subsist on wonderfully little hope, but no altogether without it.

The features of Rashleigh were such, as, having looked upon, we in vain wish to banish from our memory, to which they recur as objects of painful curiosity, although we dwell upon them with a feeling of dislike, and even of disgust.

Hope is brightest when it dawns from fears.

God will raise me up a champion, said Rebecca. It cannot be that in merry England---the hospitable, the generous, the free, where so many are ready to peril their lives for honour, there will not be found one to fight for justice. But it is enough that I challenge the trial by combat---there lies my gage.

May the open hand be filled the fullest.

It is the pest of our profession that we seldom see the best side of human nature.

Thus, in regard to the ear, the next organ in importance to the eye, we are repeatedly deceived by such sounds as are imperfectly gathered up and erroneously apprehended. From the false impressions received from this organ also arise consequences similar to those derived from erroneous reports made by the organs of sight. A whole class of superstitious observances arise, and are grounded upon inaccurate and imperfect hearing.