Top 350 Walter Scott Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “O, what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive!”

— Walter Scott

2. “Teach self-denial and make its practice pleasure, and you can create for the world a destiny more sublime that ever issued from the brain of the wildest dreamer.”

— Walter Scott

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

— Walter Scott

4. “The will to do, the soul to dare.”

— Walter Scott

5. “Sleep in peace, and wake in joy.”

— Walter Scott

6. “Is death the last sleep? No, it is the last and final awakening.”

— Walter Scott

7. “Revenge, the sweetest morsel to the mouth that ever was cooked in hell.”

— Walter Scott

8. “Without courage there cannot be truth, and without truth there can be no other virtue.”

— Walter Scott

9. “Breathes there the man with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land.”

— Walter Scott

10. “Success or failure in business is caused more by the mental attitude even than by mental capacities.”

— Walter Scott

11. “Like the dew on the mountain, like the foam on the river, like the bubble on the fountain, thou art gone, and for ever!”

— Walter Scott

12. “Where is the coward that would not dare to fight for such a land as Scotland?”

— Walter Scott

13. “Vacant heart, and hand, and eye, Easy live and quiet die.”

— Walter Scott

14. “Many miles away there’s a shadow on the door of a cottage on the Shore of a dark Scottish lake.”

— Walter Scott

15. “All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.”

— Walter Scott

16. “The way was long, the wind was cold, The Minstrel was infirm and old; His withered cheek, and tresses gray, Seemed to have know a better day.”

— Walter Scott

17. “One crowded hour of glorious life is worth an age without a name.”

— Walter Scott

18. “True love’s the gift which God has given to man alone beneath the heaven.”

— Walter Scott

19. “Despite those titles, power, and pelf, The wretch, concentred all in self, Living, shall forfeit fair renown, And, doubly dying, shall go down To the vile dust, from whence he sprung, Unwept, unhonor’d, and unsung.”

— Walter Scott

20. “And love is loveliest when embalm’d in tears.”

— Walter Scott

21. “Affection can withstand very severe storms of vigor, but not a long polar frost of indifference.”

— Walter Scott

22. “Marry in haste, repent at leisure.”

— Walter Scott

23. “Come one, come all! this rock shall fly From its firm base, as soon as I.”

— Walter Scott

24. “True love’s the gift which God has given To man alone beneath the heaven: It is not fantasy’s hot fire, Whose wishes soon as granted fly; It liveth not in fierce desire.”

— Walter Scott

25. “My foot is on my native heath, and my name is MacGregor.”

— Walter Scott

Featured in: Country Quotes

26. “Hope is brightest when it dawns from fears.”

— Walter Scott

27. “Look back, and smile on perils past.”

— Walter Scott

28. “A sound head, an honest heart, and an humble spirit are the three best guides through time and to eternity.”

— Walter Scott

29. “Fight on, brave knights! Man dies, but glory lives! Fight on; death is better than defeat! Fight on brave knights! for bright eyes behold your deeds!”

— Walter Scott

30. “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

31. “All is possible for those who dare to die!”

— Walter Scott

32. “He that climbs a ladder must begin at the first round.”

— Walter Scott

Featured in: Firsts Quotes

33. “Success – keeping your mind awake and your desire asleep.”

— Walter Scott

34. “Her blue eyes sought the west afar, For lovers love the western star.”

— Walter Scott

35. “God in his goodness sent the grapes To cheer both great and small; Little fools will drink too much And great fools none at all!”

— Walter Scott

36. “In that pleasant district of merry England which is watered by the river Don, there extended in ancient times a large forest, covering the greater part of the beautiful hills and valleys which lie between Sheffield and the pleasant town of Doncaster.”

— Walter Scott

37. “The chain of friendship, however bright, does not stand the attrition of constant close contact.”

— Walter Scott

38. “From my experience, not one in twenty marries the first love; we build statues of snow and weep to see them melt.”

— Walter Scott

Featured in: Firsts Quotes

39. “So faithful in love, and so dauntless in war, There never was knight like young Lochinvar.”

— Walter Scott

40. “The man who is deserving the name is the one whose thoughts and exertions are for others rather than for himself.”

— Walter Scott

41. “The summer dawn’s reflected hue To purple changed Lock Katrine blue, Mildly and soft the western breeze Just kiss’d the lake, just stirr’d the trees, And the pleased lake, like maiden coy, Trembled but dimpled not for joy.”

— Walter Scott

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

— Walter Scott

43. “Well, then – our course is chosen – spread the sail – Heave oft the lead, and mark the soundings well – Look to the helm, good master – many a shoal Marks this stern coast, and rocks, where sits the Siren Who, like ambition, lures men to their ruin.”

— Walter Scott

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

— Walter Scott

45. “My hope, my heaven, my trust must be, My gentle guide, in following thee.”

— Walter Scott

46. “For monarchs seldom sigh in vain.”

— Walter Scott

47. “The pith of conversation does not consist in exhibiting your own superior knowledge on matters of small consequence, but in enlarging, improving and correcting the information you possess by the authority of others.”

— Walter Scott

48. “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

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

— Walter Scott

50. “Fortune may raise up or abuse the ordinary mortal, but the sage and the soldier should have minds beyond her control.”

— Walter Scott