Walter Scott

“He that climbs the tall tree has won right to the fruit, He that leaps the wide gulf should prevail in his suit.”

“The race of mankind would perish did they cease to aid each other. We cannot exist without mutual help. All therefore that need aid have a right to ask it from their fellow-men; and no one who has the power of granting can refuse it without guilt.”

“For success, attitude is equally as important as ability.”

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

“Faces that have charmed us the most escape us the soonest.”

“What I have to say is far more important than how long my eyelashes are.”

“It was woman that taught me cruelty, and on woman therefore I have exercised it.”

“Everything is possible for him who possesses courage and activity,'' she said, with a look resembling one of those heroines of the age of chivalry, whose encouragement was wont to give champions double valour at the hour of need; ``and to the timid and hesitating, everything is impossible, because it seems so.”

“I did not myself set a high estimation on wealth, and had the affectation of most young men of lively imagination, who suppose that they can better dispense with the possession of money, than resign their time and faculties to the labour necessary to acquire it.”

“Love rules the court, the camp, the grove, And men below, and saints above: For love is heaven, and heaven is love.”

“To be ambitious of true honor, of the true glory and perfection of our natures, is the very principle and incentive of virtue.”

“If a farmer fills his barn with grain, he gets mice. If he leaves it empty, he gets actors.”

“How pleasant it is for a father to sit at his child's board. It is like an aged man reclining under the shadow of an oak which he has planted.”

“Each age has deemed the new-born year the fittest time for festal cheer.”

“What is a diary as a rule? A document useful to the person who keeps it. Dull to the contemporary who reads it and invaluable to the student, centuries afterwards, who treasures it.”

“so wondrous wild, the whole might seemthe scenery of a fairy dream”

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

“Look back, and smile on perils past.”

“He seems, in manner and rank, above the class of young men who take that turn; but I remember hearing them say, that the little theatre at Fairport was to open with the performance of a young gentleman, being his first appearance on any stage.—If this should be thee, Lovel!—Lovel? yes, Lovel or Belville are just the names which youngsters are apt to assume on such occasions—on my life, I am sorry for the lad.”

“…having once seen him put forth his strength in battle, methinks I could know him again among a thousand warriors. He rushes into the fray as if he were summoned to a banquet. There is more than mere strength—there seems as if the whole soul and spirit of the champion were given to every blow which he deals upon his enemies. God assoilzie him of the sin of bloodshed! It is fearful, yet magnificent, to behold how the arm and heart of one man can triumph over hundreds.”