Robert burns quotes

Oatcakes are a delicate relish when eaten warm with ale.

Just now I've taen the fit o' rhyme / My barmie noddle's working prime.

Some wee short hour ayont the twal.

The upright, honest-hearted man Who strives to do the best he can, Need never fear the church's ban Or hell's damnation.

Learn taciturnity and let that be your motto!

My dear, my native soil! For whom my warmest wish to Heav'n is sent, Long may thy hardy sons of rustic toil Be blest with health, and peace, and sweet content!

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

Again rejoicing Nature sees Her robe assume its vernal hues Her leafy locks wave in the breeze, All freshly steep'd in the morning dews.

To make a happy fireside clime To weans and wife, That's the true pathos and sublime Of human life.

Burns' Hog-Weighing Method: (1) Get a perfectly symmetrical plank and balance it across a sawhorse. (2) Put the hog on one end of the plank. (3) Pile rocks on the other end until the plank is again perfectly balanced. (4) Carefully guess the weight of the rocks.

If there's another world, he lives in bliss; if there is none, he made the best of this.

Suspense is worst than disappointment.

Even every ray of hope destroyed and not a wish to gild the gloom.

When Nature her great masterpiece designed,And framed her last, best work, the human mind,Her eye intent on all the wondrous plan,She formed of various stuff the various Man.

The wisest man the warl' e'er saw, He dearly loved the lasses, O.

The best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley.

Why has a religious turn of mind always a tendency to narrow and harden the heart?

God knows, I'm not the thing I should be, Nor am I even the thing I could be, But twenty times I rather would be An atheist clean, Than under gospel colours hid be Just for a screen.

What's done we partly may compute, But know not what's resisted.

Go fetch to me a pint o' wine, An' fill it in a silver tassie.

Once upon a Lammas Night When corn rigs are bonny, Beneath the Moon's unclouded light, I held awhile to Annie... The time went by with careless heed Between the late and early, With small persuasion she agreed To see me through the barley... Corn rigs and barley rigs, Corn rigs are bonny! I'll not forget that happy night Among the rigs with Annie!

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

Prudent, cautious self-control is wisdom's root.

God knows, I'm no the thing I should be, Nor am I even the thing I could be.

Gie me ae spark o' Nature's fire, That's a' the learning I desire.

Life is but a day at most.

Suspicion is a heavy armor and with its weight it impedes more than it protects.

And let us mind, faint heart ne'er wan A lady fair. Wha does the utmost that he can Will whyles do mair.

But little Mouse, you are not alone, In proving foresight may be vain: The best laid schemes of mice and men Go often askew, And leave us nothing but grief and pain, For promised joy! Still you are blest, compared with me!

Here's to us, who's like us Damn few, and they're all dead.

Yon rosebuds in the morning-dew, how pure amang the leaves sae green!

Hope springs exulting on triumphant wing.

God help the teacher, if a man of sensibility and genius, when a booby father presents him with his booby son, and insists on lighting up the rays of science in a fellow's head whose skull is impervious and inaccessible by any other way than a positive fracture with a cudgel.

Now's the day and now's the hour.

A man's a man for a' that. . . . . A prince can mak a belted knight, A marquis, duke, and a' that; But an honest man's aboon his might, Guid faith he mauna fa' that! . . . Then let us pray that come it may, As come it will for a' that, That sense and worth, o'er a' the earth, May bear the gree and a' that. For a' that, and a' that, It's comin' yet, for a' that, When man to man, the world o'er, Shall brithers be for a' that.

The best plans of men and mice often go awry.

My Son, these maxims make a rule An lump them ay thegither: The Rigid Righteous is a fool, The Rigid Wise anither.

The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men, Gang aft a-gley, And leave us nought but grief and pain, For promised joy.

Look abroad through Nature's range, Nature's mighty law is change.

What is life, when wanting love? Night without a morning; Love's the cloudless summer sun, Nature gay adorning.

Suspense is worse than disappointment.

See Social-life and Glee sit down, All joyous and unthinking, Till, quite transmugrified, they're grown Debauchery and Drinking

Beauty's of a fading nature. Has a season and is gone!

Good Lord, what is man! for as simple he looks, Do but try to develop his books and his crooks, With his depths and his shallows, his good and his evil, All in all, he's a problem must puzzle the devil.

The snowdrop and primrose our woodlands adorn, and violets bathe in the wet o' the morn.

O, wad some Power the giftie gie us To see oursels as others see us! It wad frae monie a blunder free us, An' foolish notion.

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.

Gars auld claes look amaist as weel's the new.

The landlord's laugh was ready chorus.

And O! be sure to fear the Lord alway, And mind your duty, duly, morn and night; Lest in temptation's path ye gang astray, Implore His counsel and assisting might: They never sought in vain that sought the Lord aright.

Chords that vibrate sweetest pleasure Thrill the deepest notes of woe.

To step aside is human.

But to see her was to love her, Love but her, and love forever.

Nature's law, That man was made to mourn. Man's inhumanity to man Makes countless thousands mourn! O Death, the poor man's dearest friend, The kindest and the best!

The trout in yonder wimpling burn - That glides, a silver dart, - And, safe beneath the shady thorn, - Defies the anglers art.

But facts are chiels that winna ding, An' downa be disputed.

Now Nature hangs her mantle green On every blooming tree, And spreads her sheets o'daisies white Out o'er the grassy lea.

There is no such uncertainty as a sure thing.

When matters are desperate we must put on a desperate face.

The honest man, though e'er sae poor, Is king o' men, for a' that!

By Oppression's woes and pains! By your sons in servile chains! We will drain our dearest veins, But they shall be free! Lay the proud usurpers low! Tyrants fall in every foe! Liberty's in every blow! Let us do or die!

Not the bee upon the blossom, In the pride o' sunny noon; Not the little sporting fairy, All beneath the simmer moon; Not the poet, in the moment Fancy lightens in his e'e, Kens the pleasure, feels the rapture, That thy presence gi'es to me.

Oh my luve's like a red, red rose, That's newly sprung in June; Oh my luve's like the melodie That's sweetly played in tune.

Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie, O, what a panic's in thy breastie!

But Mousie, thou art no thy lane In proving foresight may be vain The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang aft agley An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain For promis'd joy!

The voice of Nature loudly cries,And many a message from the skies,That something in us never dies.

Oh would some power the gift give us, to see ourselves as others see us!

A mind that is conscious of its integrity scorns to say more than it means to perform.

I love drinking now and then. It defecates the standing pool of thought. A man perpetually in the paroxysm and fears of inebriety is like a half-drowned stupid wretch condemned to labor unceasingly in water; but a now-and-then tribute to Bacchus is like the cold bath, bracing and invigorating.

My love is like a red, red rose That's newly sprung in June: My love is like the melody That's sweetly played in tune. How fair art thou, my bonnie lass, So deep in love am I; And I will love thee still, my dear, Till all the seas gang dry. Till all the seas gang dry, my dear, And the rocks melt with the sun; I will love thee still, my dear, While the sands of life shall run. And fare thee weel, my only love. And fare thee weel awhile! And I will come again, my love, Though it were ten thousand mile.

All my fears and cares are of this world; if there is another, an honest man has nothing to fear from it.

Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled, Scots, wham Bruce has aften led, Welcome to your gory bed, Or to victory! Now 's the day and now 's the hour; See the front o' battle lour.

Should auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot and days of auld lang syne? For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne, we'll take a cup of kindness yet, for auld lang syne.

She is a winsome wee thing, She is a handsome wee thing, She is a bonny wee thing, This sweet wee wife o' mine.

Firmness in enduring and exertion is a character I always wish to possess. I have always despised the whining yelp of complaint and cowardly resolve.

Auld Nature swears the lovely dears Her noblest work she classes, O; Her 'prentice han' she tried on man, And then she made the lasses, O!

Some books are lies frae end to end.

A women can make an average man great, and a great man average.

Painters and poets have liberty to lie.

An honest man here lies at rest, the friend of man the friend of truth the friend of age and guide of youth. Few hearts like his with virtue warmed, few heads with knowledge so informed. If there's another world, he lives in bliss. If there is none, he made the best of this.

How wretched is the person who hangs on by the favors of the powerful.

Ye Hypocrites, are these your pranks To murder men and gie God thanks Desist for shame, proceed no further God won't accept your thanks for murder.

I'm truly sorry man's dominion has broken Nature's social union.

Mankind is a science that defies definitions.

Pleasures are like poppies spread: You seize the flow'r, its bloom is shed.

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

Inspiring bold JohnBarleycorn! What dangers thou canst make us scorn! Wi' usquebae, we'll face the devil!

To see her is to love her, And love but her forever; For nature made her what she is, And never made anither!

The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.

All-cheering Plenty, with her flowing horn, Led yellow Autumn, wreath'd with nodding corn.

The best laid plans take 40 years to complete.

The heart that is generous and kind most resembles God.

O Life! thou art a galling load, Along a rough, a weary road, To wretches such as I!

The fear o' hell's a hangman's whip To haud the wretch in order; But where ye feel your honour grip, Let that aye be your border.

But pleasures are like poppies spread, You seize the flower, it's bloom is shed; Or, like the snow-fall in the river, A moment white, then melts forever.

A eunuch is a man who has had his work cut out for him.

Some rhyme a neebor's name to lash; Some rhyme (vain thought!) for needfu' cash; Some rhyme to court the countra clash, An' raise a din; For me, an aim I never fash; I rhyme for fun.

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.

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

Nae man can tether time or tide.

But deep this truth impressed my mind — Thro' all his works abroad, The heart benevolent and kind The most resembles God.

While Europe's eye is fix'd on mighty things, The fate of empires and the fall of kings; While quacks of State must each produce his plan, And even children lisp the Rights of Man; Amid this mighty fuss just let me mention, The Rights of Woman merit some attention.

Some hae meat and canna eat, And some wad eat that want it, But we hae meat and we can eat, And sae the Lord be thankit.

Dare to be honest and fear no labor.

I want someone to laugh with me, someone to be grave with me, someone to please me and help my discrimination with his or her own remark, and at times, no doubt, to admire my acuteness and penetration.

Be Briton still to Britain true, Among oursel's united; For never but by British hands Maun British wrangs be righted.

Man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn!

I look on the opposite sex with something like the admiration with which I regard the starry sky on a frosty December night. I admire the beauty of the Creator's workmanship, I am charmed with the wild but graceful eccentricity of the motions, and then I wish both of them goodnight.

From scenes like these old Scotia's grandeur springs, That makes her loved at home, revered abroad: Princes and lords are but the breath of kings, "An honest man 's the noblest work of God."

To make three guineas do the work of five.

Anticipation forward points the view.

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

Or like the snow falls in the river, A moment white-then melts for ever . . .

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

Pharmaceutical projects are like fresh fruit - they depreciate if they are not tended to, and they do poorly if sitting on the shelf with long periods of inactivity.

It 's guid to be merry and wise, It 's guid to be honest and true, It 's guid to support Caledonia's cause, And bide by the buff and the blue.

Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And never brought to min?

The golden hours on angel wings Flew o'er me and my dearie, For dear to me as light and life Was my sweet Highland Mary.

Kings may be blest, but Tam was glorious, O'er a' the ills o' life victorious.

And like a passing thought, she fled In light away.

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

Dare to be honest and fear no labor. ... Opera is where a man gets stabbed in the back, and instead of dying, he sings.

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

Ah, gentle dames! it gars me greet To think how monie counsels sweet, How monie lengthened sage advices, The husband frae the wife despises.

Critics! Those cut-throat bandits in the paths of fame.