Quotes from Robert Burns

Nae man can tether time or tide.

Some wee short hour ayont the twal.

Nae man can tether time or tide; The hour approachesTam maun ride; That hour, o'night's black arch the key-stane, That dreary hourTam mounts his beast in.

Never generally means "at no point in time." The term comes from the words 'no' and 'ever', meaning that something is not ever going to happen. Sourced

The wide world is all before us - but a world without a friend.

Your lines, I maintain it, are poetry, and good poetry.... Friendship... had I been so blest as to have met with you in time, might have led me - God of love only knows where.

But to see her was to love her, Love but her, and love forever. Had we never lou'd sae kindly, Had we never lou'd sae blindly, Never met - or never parted - We had ne'er been broken hearted

O, my luve is like a red, red rose.

Suspense is worse than disappointment.

Farewell, my friends! farewell, my foes! My peace with these, my love with those. The bursting tears my heart declare; Farewell, the bonnie banks of Ayr.

O Scotia! my dear, my native soil! For whom my warmest wish to Heaven is sent

Love's first snow-drop, virgin kiss.

Affliction's sons are brothers in distress; A brother to relieve, how exquisite the bliss!

I am very willing to admit that I have some poetical abilities, and as few - if any - writers, either moral or political, are intimately acquainted with the classes of mankind among whom I have chiefly mingled, I may have seen men and manners in a different phasis from what is common, which may assist originality of thought.

Morality, thou deadly bane, Thy tens o' thousands thou hast slain! Vain is his hope, whose stay an' trust is In moral mercy, truth, and justice!

There's some are fou o' love divine; There's some are fou o' brandy.

Humid seal of soft affections, Tend'rest pledge of future bliss, Dearest tie of young connections, Love's first snow-drop, virgin kiss.

My heart is sair-I dare na tell, My heart is sair for Somebody.

Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, timrous beastie 0 what a panic's in thy breastie! Wi' bickering brattle!

To see her is to love her, And love but her forever; For Nature made her what she is, And never made another.

My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here; My heart's in the Highlands a-chasing the deer.

Mankind is an unco squad And muckle he may grieve thee.

I pick my favourite quotations and store them in my mind as ready armour, offensive or defensive, amid the struggle of this turbulent existence.

I have a hundred times wished that one could resign life as an officer resigns a commission.