Top 100 Robert Burns Quotes (2024 Update)
Page 2 of 3

51. “Man is a soldier and life must be fought.”

— Robert Burns

52. “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.”

— Robert Burns

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

— Robert Burns

54. “Some books are lies frae end to end.”

— Robert Burns

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

— Robert Burns

56. “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.”

— Robert Burns

57. “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.”

— Robert Burns

58. “All-cheering Plenty, with her flowing horn, Led yellow Autumn, wreath’d with nodding corn.”

— Robert Burns

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

— Robert Burns

60. “Learn taciturnity and let that be your motto!”

— Robert Burns

61. “Great for good, or great for evil.”

— Robert Burns

62. “It is cruelty to be humane to rebels, and humanity is cruelty.”

— Robert Burns

63. “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.”

— Robert Burns

64. “Oh, stay, sweet warbling woodlark, stay, Nor quit for me the trembling spray, A hapless lover courts thy lay, Thy soothing, fond complaining.”

— Robert Burns

65. “Painters and poets have liberty to lie.”

— Robert Burns

66. “Some wee short hour ayont the twal.”

— Robert Burns

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

— Robert Burns

68. “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.”

— Robert Burns

69. “Misled by fancy’s meteor ray, By passion driven; But yet the light that led astray Was light from heaven.”

— Robert Burns

70. “Their sighing, canting, grace-proud faces, their three-mile prayers, and half-mile graces.”

— Robert Burns

71. “His locked, lettered, braw brass collar, Shewed him the gentleman and scholar.”

— Robert Burns

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

— Robert Burns

73. “The snowdrop and primrose our woodlands adorn, and violets bathe in the wet o’ the morn.”

— Robert Burns

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

— Robert Burns

75. “For thus the royal mandate ran, When first the human race began, “The social, friendly honest man, Whate’er he be, Tis he fulfils great Nature’s plan, And none but he!””

— Robert Burns

76. “Yon rose-buds in the morning-dew, How pure amang the leaves sae green!”

— Robert Burns

77. “Flow gently, sweet Afton, among thy green braes, Flow gently, I’ll sing thee a song in thy praise.”

— Robert Burns

78. “They never sought in vain that sought the Lord alright!”

— Robert Burns

79. “An atheist’s laugh ’s a poor exchange For Deity offended!”

— Robert Burns

80. “What’s done we partly may compute, But know not what’s resisted.”

— Robert Burns

81. “If there ‘s a hole in a’ your coats, I rede ye tent it; A chiel ‘s amang ye takin’ notes, And, faith, he ’ll prent it.”

— Robert Burns

82. “Anticipation forward points the view.”

— Robert Burns

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

— Robert Burns

84. “When chill November’s surly blast make fields and forest bare.”

— Robert Burns

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

— Robert Burns

86. “I’ll be merry and free, I’ll be sad for nae-body; If nae-body cares for me, I’ll care for nae-body.”

— Robert Burns

87. “Mankind is a science that defies definitions.”

— Robert Burns

88. “The landlord’s laugh was ready chorus.”

— Robert Burns

89. “Thou Power Supreme, whose mighty scheme These woes of mine fulfil, Here firm I rest; they must be best, Because they are Thy will! Then all I want – O do Thou grant This one request of mine! – Since to enjoy Thou dost deny, Assist me to resign.”

— Robert Burns

90. “In durance vile 1here must I wake and weep, And all my frowsy couch in sorrow steep.”

— Robert Burns

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

— Robert Burns

92. “When matters are desperate we must put on a desperate face.”

— Robert Burns

93. “Mankind is an unco squad And muckle he may grieve thee.”

— Robert Burns

94. “Now simmer blinks on flowery braes, And o’er the crystal streamlet plays.”

— Robert Burns

95. “Even thou who mournst the daisy’s fate, That fate is thine – no distant date; Stern Ruin’s ploughshare drives, elate, Full on thy bloom, Till crushed beneath the furrow’s weight Shall be thy doom!”

— Robert Burns

96. “Ilk cowslip cup shall kep a tear.”

— Robert Burns

97. “A gaudy dress and gentle air May slightly touch the heart; But it’s innocence and modesty That polishes the dart.”

— Robert Burns

98. “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.”

— Robert Burns

99. “Let them cant about decorum, who have characters to lose!”

— Robert Burns

100. “Even tho who mournst the daisies fate, that fate is thine.”

— Robert Burns