Source: Tam o' Shanter (1790), Line 59
Source: Tam O'Shanter
Works
Tam o' Shanter
Robert Burns
The Cotter's Saturday Night
Robert BurnsAe fond kiss, and then we sever...
Robert BurnsTo a Mouse
Robert BurnsGreen Grow the Rashes
Robert BurnsTo a Mountain Daisy
Robert BurnsTo a Louse
Robert BurnsScots Wha Hae
Robert BurnsHighland Mary
Robert BurnsHandsome Nell
Robert BurnsMary Morison
Robert BurnsMy Heart's in the Highlands
Robert BurnsJohn Barleycorn
Robert BurnsHere's A Health
Robert BurnsSweet Afton
Robert Burns
Robert Burns:
114
quotes
12
likes
Famous Robert Burns Quotes
“But to see her was to love her,
Love but her, and love forever.”
Bonny Lesley.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Variant: To see her is to love her,
And love but her forever;
For Nature made her what she is,
And never made anither!
My Heart's in the Highlands, st. 1
Johnson's The Scots Musical Museum (1787-1796)
Robert Burns Quotes about nature
New Year's Day, st. 3 (1790)
Robert Burns: Trending quotes
“The best laid schemes o' mice and men
Gang aft a-gley”
To a Mouse, st. 7 (1785)
Source: Collected Poems of Robert Burns
Context: The best laid schemes o' mice and men
Gang aft a-gley;
And leave us naught but grief and pain
For promised joy.
Ae Fond Kiss, And Then We Sever, st. 2
Johnson's The Scots Musical Museum (1787-1796)
Source: Robert Burns
Robert Burns Quotes
“There is no such uncertainty as a sure thing.”
Reported as attributed to Burns but unverified in Suzy Platt (ed.), Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations Requested from the Congressional Research Service (Washington, DC : Library of Congress 1989) http://www.bartleby.com/73/172.html
Disputed
Source: Collected Poems of Robert Burns
Ae Fond Kiss, And Then We Sever, st. 2
Johnson's The Scots Musical Museum (1787-1796)
Source: Collected Poems of Robert Burns
Context: But to see her was to love her;
Love but her, and love for ever.
Had we never lov'd sae kindly,
Had we never lov'd sae blindly,
Never met—or never parted,
We had ne'er been broken-hearted.
To a Mouse, st. 7 (1785)
Source: Collected Poems of Robert Burns
“Some books are lies frae end to end,
And some great lies were never penn'd…”
Death and Dr. Hornbook, st. 1 (1787)
Variant: Some books are lies frae end to end.
“Oh would some power the giftie gie us, To see ourselves as others see us.”
To a Louse, st. 8 (1786) http://www.poetry-online.org/burns_to_a_louse.htm
Variant: O, wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us
Source: The Complete Poetical Works of Robert Burns
Context: 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.
What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us
An' ev'n Devotion
“Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie,
O, what a panic's in thy breastie!”
To a Mouse, st. 1 (1785)
Context: Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie,
O, what a panic's in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi' bickering brattle!
Source: Tam o' Shanter (1790), Line 171
“What 's done we partly may compute,
But know not what 's resisted.”
Address to the Unco Guid.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“As Tammie glow'red, amazed, and curious,
The mirth and fun grew fast and furious.”
Source: Tam o' Shanter (1790), Line 143
The Rights of Woman, st. 1 (1792)
My Wife's a Winsome Wee Thing, chorus (1792)
“When chill November's surly blast
Made fields and forests bare.”
Man was made to Mourn.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“Now a' is done that men can do,
And a' is done in vain.”
It Was A' for Our Rightfu' King, st. 2
Johnson's The Scots Musical Museum (1787-1796)
A Man's A Man For A' That, st. 3-5 (1795)
“In durance vile here must I wake and weep,
And all my frowsy couch in sorrow steep.”
Epistle from Esopus to Maria
Posthumous Pieces (1799)
“Perhaps it may turn out a sang,
Perhaps turn out a sermon.”
Stanza 1
Epistle to a Young Friend (1786)
Source: Tam o' Shanter (1790), Line 10
“He wales a portion with judicious care;
And "Let us worship God" he says, with solemn air.”
Stanza 12
The Cotter's Saturday Night (1786)
“God knows, I'm no the thing I should be,
Nor am I even the thing I could be.”
To The Reverend John M'Math, st. 8
Posthumous Pieces (1799)
On the Late Captain Grose's Peregrinations Thro' Scotland, st. 1 (1793)
The Banks o' Doon, st. 1
Johnson's The Scots Musical Museum (1787-1796)
“Beneath the milk-white thorn that scents the evening gale.”
Stanza 9
The Cotter's Saturday Night (1786)
Handsome Nell (1773) (also known as "My Handsome Nell"), st. 6.
Johnson's The Scots Musical Museum (1787-1796)
“Suspense is worse than disappointment.”
Letter to Thomas Sloan, (1 September 1791)
The Jolly Beggars, chorus
Posthumous Pieces (1799)
“The white moon is setting behind the white wave,
And Time is setting with me, O!”
Misquotation by W. B. Yeats of Burns's "Open the Door to me, Oh" http://www.robertburns.org/works/397.shtml (1793) in Ideas of good and evil (1907), p. 241; the original reads: "The wan Moon is setting beyond the white wave,/ And Time is setting with me, oh!"
Misattributed
Here's a Health to Them That's Awa, st. 1
Posthumous Pieces (1799)
“This day, Time winds th' exhausted chain,
To run the twelvemonth's length again.”
New Year's Day, st. 1 (1790)
“And may you better reck the rede,
Than ever did the adviser!”
Stanza 11.
Epistle to a Young Friend (1786)
Address to the Unco Guid, st. 7 (1787)
“Perhaps Dundee's wild-warbling measures rise,
Or plaintive Martyrs, worthy of the name.”
Stanza 13
The Cotter's Saturday Night (1786)
“Some wee short hours ayont the twal.”
Death and Dr. Hornbook.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“Affliction's sons are brothers in distress;
A brother to relieve,—how exquisite the bliss!”
A Winter Night.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“Man's inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn.
Man was made to Mourn.”
Man was Made to Mourn (1786)
“O whistle, and I'll come to you, my lad:
Tho' father and mither and a' should gae mad.”
Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad, chorus (1793)
