Quotes from Walter Scott

My dear, be a good man be virtuous be religious be a good man. Nothing else will give you any comfort when you come to lie here. ...God bless you all.

Great talent has always a little madness mixed up with it.

Mankind — the race would perish did they cease to aid each other.

Commend me to sterling honesty though clad in rags.

The sickening pang of hope deferr'd.

The heart-sick faintness of the hope delayed!

What an ornament and safeguard is humor! Far better than wit for a poet and writer. It is a genius itself, and so defends from the insanities.

The will to do, the soul to dare..

For he that does good, having the unlimited power to do evil, deserves praise not only for the good which he performs, but for the evil which he forbears.

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

It is a great disgrace to religion, to imagine that it is an enemy to mirth and cheerfulness, and a severe exacter of pensive looks and solemn faces.

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

A lawyer without history or literature is a mechanic, a mere working mason; if he possesses some knowledge of these, he may venture to call himself an architect.

We build statues out of snow, and weep to see them melt.

Chess is a sad waste of brains.

Discretion is the perfection of reason, and a guide to us in all the duties of life.

One crowded hour of glorious life is worth an age without a name

For success, attitude is equally as important as ability.

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

If you once turn on your side after the hour at which you ought to rise, it is all over. Bolt up at once.

Lightly from fair to fair he flew, And loved to plead, lament, and sue; Suit lightly won, and short-lived pain, For monarchs seldom sigh in vain.

Is death the last sleep? No, it is the last and final awakening.

O, what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive!

When thinking about companions gone, we feel ourselves doubly alone.