Walter Scott Quotes

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!

~ Walter Scott

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

~ Walter Scott

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

~ Walter Scott

A lawyer without history or literature is a mechanic, a mere working mason; if he possesses some knowledge of these, he may venture to call himself an architect.

~ Walter Scott

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

~ Walter Scott

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.

~ Walter Scott

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

~ Walter Scott

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

~ Walter Scott

O, what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive!

~ Walter Scott

Teach your children poetry; it opens the mind, lends grace to wisdom and makes the heroic virtues hereditary.

~ Walter Scott

Look back, and smile on perils past.

~ Walter Scott

Success - keeping your mind awake and your desire asleep.

~ Walter Scott

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

~ Walter Scott

When thinking about companions gone, we feel ourselves doubly alone.

~ Walter Scott