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I like to have quotations ready for every occasions - they give one's ideas so pat and save one the trouble of finding expression adequate to one's feeling.

Robert Burns

Statements in prose and verse which reflect all aspects of Scottish life and outlook from the 1^st century to the present day.  New quotes added every week.  The quotations are not restricted to native Scots but include observations from abroad which help us, in the words of our National Bard, Robert Burns, "To see oursels as others see us"    

 
John Buchan, 1^st Baron Tweedsmuir of Enfield (1875-1940)

Our rural population is shrinking and our industries are decaying. Our ancient system of law and justice is not what it was. Our churches, perhaps no longer have the same hold on the heart of our people, In language, literature and art we are losing our idiom, and, it seems to many, we are in danger of very soon reaching the point where Scotland will have nothing distinctive to show the world.

(Speech in the House of Commons, London, England 22 November 1932)

David (Davie) Kirkwood, 1^st Baron Kirkwood (1872-1955)

These men are the Clyde shop stewards. I can assure you that every word you say will be carefully weighed. We regard you with suspicion because the Munitions Act with which your name is associated has the taint of slavery about it, and you will find that we, as Scotsmen, resent that. If you deserve to get the best out of us, you must treat us with justice and respect.

(Speaking to David Lloyd George, Minister for Munitions, on behalf of Clydeside Shop Stewarts 25 December 1915)

Hugh MacDiarmid (born Christopher Murray Grieve) (1892-1978)

I’ll ha’e nae hauf-way hoose, but aye be whaur
Extremes meet – it’s the only way I ken
To dodge the curst conceit o’ bein’ richt
That damns the vast majority o’ men.

 (A Drunk man Looks at the Thistle 1926)

John MacLean (1879-1923)

No human being on the face of the earth, no government, is going to take from me my right to speak, my right to protest against wrong, my right to do anything that is for the benefit of mankind. I am not here as the accused; I am here as the accuser of capitalism dripping with blood from head to foot.

(Speaking at his trial for sedition 9 May 1918)

Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher

The pride of the Scottish office – whose very structure added a layer of bureaucracy, standing in the way of the very reforms which were paying such dividends in England – was that public expenditure per head in Scotland was far higher than in England… If it [the Conservative Party] sometimes seems English to some Scots that is because the Union is dominated by England by reason of its greater population.

(The Downing Street Years 1993)

See Scottish Quotations in our Features Section 

SONGS OF ROBERT BURNS

A collection of some of the best known songs by Scotland's greatest songwriter and National Bard, Robert Burns (1759 - 1796)
 

                            Go fetch to me a pint o' wine,

                            And fill it in a silver tassie,

                            That I may drink, before I go,

                            A service to my bonnie lassie;

                            The boat rocks at the Pier o' Leith,

                            Fu' loud the wind blaws frae the Ferry,

                            The ship rides by the Berwick Law,

                            And I maun leave my bonnie Mary.

 

                            The trumpets sound, the banners fly,

                            The glittering spears are ranked and ready,

                            The shouts o' war are heard afar,

                            The battle closes deep and bloody:

                             It's not the roar o' sea or shore

                             Wad make me langer wish to tarry;

                             Nor shouts o' war that's heard afar,

                             It's leaving thee, my bonnie Mary!

RAGLAN ROAD
Patrick Kavanagh

On Raglan Road on an autumn day I saw her first and knew
That her dark hair would weave a snare that I might one day rue;
I saw the danger, yet I passed along the enchanted way,
And I said, let grief be a fallen leaf at the dawning of the day.

On Grafton Street in November we tripped lightly along the ledge
Of the deep ravine where can be seen the worth of passion's pledge,
The Queen of Hearts still making tarts and I not making hay -
Oh I loved too much and by such by such is happiness thrown away.

I gave her gifts of the mind I gave her the secret sign that's known
To the artists who have known the true gods of sound and stone
And word and tint without stint for I gave her poems to say.
With her own name there and her own dark hair like clouds over fields of May

On a quiet street where old ghosts meet I see hger walking now
Away from me so hurriedly my reason must allow
That I had loved not as I should a creature made of clay -
When the angel woos the clay he'd lose his wings at the dawn of day.
 

Footnote:  Robin Watson reminded me of this haunting Irish song when he sang it on Saturday night at the very successful Gaberlunzie Concert in the Thistle Hotel as part of the 18^th Milnathort Crackin’ Ceilidh Weekend.  Sometimes attributed as traditional, it was in fact composed by the great Irish poet Patrick Kavanagh (1904-1967) for Luke Kelly of The Dubliners. Both men admired each other’s talents but didn’t like one another! Fortunately Luke Kelly not only sang and recorded the song but inspired many other singers to follow his example. He is probably best remembered for ‘Raglan Road’ and his long poem ‘The Great Hunger’ which was adapted for the stage in 1983 and premiered in the Abbey theatre, Dublin. In 200 the Irish Times surveyed ‘the nation’s favourite poems’ and his fellow-countrymen voted ten of Patrick Kavanagh’s poems into the top fifty .He married late in life to Katherine Barry Malone in April 1967 and sadly died later that year on St Andrew’s Day.

See the SING A SANG AT LEAST in our features section

SCOTTISH FOOD, TRADITIONS AND CUSTOMS