Quotes from James Hogg

The charge was left entirely to himself from midnight until the rising of the sun; and if all the shepherds in the Forest had been there to have assisted him, they could not have effected it with greater propriety.

We'll o'er the water, we'll o'er the sea,We'll o'er the water to Charlie;Come weal, come woe, we'll gather and go,And live and die wi' Charlie.

He had one uniform practice, and a very bad one it was, during the time of family worship, and just three or four seconds before the conclusion of the prayer, he started to his feet, and ran barking round the apartment like a crazed beast.

Without the shepherd's dog, the whole of the open mountainous land in Scotland would not be worth a sixpence.

O, love, love, love! Love is like a dizziness; It winna let a poor body Gang about his biziness!

He was scarcely then a year old, and knew so little of herding that he had never turned a sheep in his life; but as soon as he discovered it was his duty to do so I can never forget with what anxiety and eagerness he learned his different evolutions.

Man mind yoursel is the first commandment.

What is the life of a man more than the life of a lamb, or any guiltless animal?

With regard to the work itself, I dare not venture a judgment, for I do not understand it.

Nothing in the world delights a truly religious people so much as consigning them to eternal damnation.

An exaltation of spirit lifted me, as it were, far above the earth and the sinful creatures crawling on its surface; and I deemed myself as an eagle among the children of men, soaring on high, and looking down with pity and contempt on the grovelling creatures below.

The attendance of that brother was now become like the attendance of a demon on some devoted being that had sold himself to destruction

Having been bred amongst mountains I am always unhappy when in a flat country. Whenever the skirts of the horizon come on a level with myself I feel myself quite uneasy and generally have a headache. (Letter to Sir Walter Scott, 25 July 1802)

We are all subjected to two distinct natures in the same person. I myself have suffered grievously in that way.

It is the controller of Nature alone that can bring light out of darkness, and order out of confusion. Who is he that causeth the mole, from his secret path of darkness, to throw up the gem, the gold, and the precious ore? The same that from the mouths of babes and sucklings can extract the perfection of praise, and who can make the most abject of his creatures instrumental in bringing the most hidden truths to light.

Will you no come back again? Better loved you'll never be, And will you no come back again?

I never go but where I have some great purpose to serve, returned he, either in the advancement of my own power and dominion or in thwarting my enemies.

I have known a lady, John, who was delivered of a blackamoor child, merely from the circumstance of having got a start by the sudden entrance of her negro servant, and not being able to forget him for several hours

It strikes me, my dear, that religious devotion would be somewhat out of place tonight

Farewell, world, with all thy miseries; for comforts or enjoyments hast thou none! Farewell, woman, whom I have despised and shunned; and man, whom I have hated; whom, nevertheless, I desire to leave in charity! And thou, sun, bright emblem of a far brighter effulgence, I bid farewell to thee also! I do not now take my last look of thee, for to thy glorious orb shall a poor suicide's last earthly look be raised.

Auld John may dee a beggar in a hay barn, or at the back of a dike, but he sall aye be master o' his ain thoughts an' gie them vent or no, as he likes

Hold, Sir, I say! None of your profanity before me. If I do evil to anyone on such occasions, it is because he will have it so; therefore, the evil is not of my doing.

I anticipate with joy the approaching period when the stigmas of poverty and pride so liberally bestowed on the highlanders by our southern gentry will be as inapplicable to the inhabitants of that country as of any in the island.

Alas, what short-sighted improvident creatures we are, all of us; and how often does the evening cup of joy lead to sorrow in the morning!