Walter Scott

“My hope, my heaven, my trust must be,My gentle guide, in following thee.”

“A rusty nail placed near a faithful compass, will sway it from the truth, and wreck the argosy.”

“Thou hast had thty day, old dame, but thy sun has long been set. Thou art now the very emblem of an old warhorse turned out on the barren heath; thou hast had thy paces in thy time, but now a broken amble is the best of them.”

“It is wonderful what strength of purpose and boldness and energy of will are roused by the assurance that we are doing our duty.”

“I have sometimes thought of the final cause of dogs having such short lives and I am quite satisfied it is in compassion to the human race; for if we suffer so much in losing a dog after an acquaintance of ten or twelve years, what would it be if they were to live double that time?”

“Perhaps the perusal of such works may, without injustice, be compared with the use of opiates, baneful, when habitually and constantly resorted to, but of most blessed power in those moments of pain and of langour, when the whole head is sore, and the whole heart sick. If those who rail indiscriminately at this species of composition, were to consider the quantity of actual pleasure it produces, and the much greater proportion of real sorrow and distress which it alleviates, their philanthropy ought to moderate their critical pride, or religious intolerance.”

“Oh, what a tangled web we weave...when first we practice to deceive.”

“We shall never learn to feel and respect our real calling and destiny, unless we have taught ourselves to consider every thing as moonshine, compared with the education of the heart.”

“Success - keeping your mind awake and your desire asleep.”

“Unless a tree has borne blossoms in spring, you will vainly look for fruit on it in autumn.”

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

“All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.”

“I pretend not to be a champion of that same naked virtue called truth, to the very outrance. I can consent that her charms be hidden with a veil, were it but for decency's sake.”

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

“O! many a shaft, at random sent, Finds mark the archer little meant! And many a word, at random spoken, May soothe or wound a heart that's broken!”

“The half hour between waking and rising has all my life proved propitious to any task which was exercising my invention... It was always when I first opened my eyes that the desired ideas thronged upon me.”

“Fight on, brave knights! Man dies, but glory lives! Fight on; death is better than defeat! Fight on brave knights! for bright eyes behold your deeds!”

“To all, to each, a fair good-night, and pleasing dreams, and slumbers light.”

“One hour of life, crowded to the full with glorious action, and filled with noble risks, is worth whole years of those mean observances of paltry decorum, in which men steal through existence, like sluggish waters through a marsh, without either honor or observation.”

“He is the best sailor who can steer within fewest points of the wind, and exact a motive power out of the greatest obstacles.”