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Robert Burns Quotes

Robert Burns , also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, the National Bard, Bard of Ayrshire and the Ploughman Poet and various other names and epithets, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language, although much of his writing is also in English and a light Scots dialect, accessible to an audience beyond Scotland. He also wrote in standard English, and in these writings his political or civil commentary is often at its bluntest.

He is regarded as a pioneer of the Romantic movement, and after his death he became a great source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalism and socialism, and a cultural icon in Scotland and among the Scottish diaspora around the world. Celebration of his life and work became almost a national charismatic cult during the 19th and 20th centuries, and his influence has long been strong on Scottish literature. In 2009 he was chosen as the greatest Scot by the Scottish public in a vote run by Scottish television channel STV.

As well as making original compositions, Burns also collected folk songs from across Scotland, often revising or adapting them. His poem "Auld Lang Syne" is often sung at Hogmanay , and "Scots Wha Hae" served for a long time as an unofficial national anthem of the country. Other poems and songs of Burns that remain well known across the world today include "A Red, Red Rose", "A Man's a Man for A' That", "To a Louse", "To a Mouse", "The Battle of Sherramuir", "Tam o' Shanter" and "Ae Fond Kiss". Wikipedia  

✵ 25. January 1759 – 21. July 1796  •  Other names রবার্ট বার্ণস, Роберт Бернс
Robert Burns photo

Works

Tam o' Shanter
Robert Burns
The Cotter's Saturday Night
Robert Burns: 114 quotes13 likes

Famous Robert Burns Quotes

“But pleasures are like poppies spread—
You seize the flow'r, its bloom is shed;
Or like the snow falls in the river—
A moment white—then melts forever.”

Robert Burns Tam o' Shanter

Source: Tam o' Shanter (1790), Line 59
Source: Tam O'Shanter

“But to see her was to love her,
Love but her, and love forever.”

Robert Burns

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!

“It's hardly in a body's pow'r,
To keep, at times, frae being sour.”

Robert Burns

Epistle to Davie, st. 2 (1786)

“Ye Hypocrites, are these your pranks
To murder men and gie God thanks
Desist for shame, proceed no further
God won't accept your thanks for murder.”

Robert Burns

“My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here,
My heart's in the Highlands, a-chasing the deer;
A-chasing the wild deer, and following the roe,
My heart's in the Highlands, wherever I go.”

Robert Burns My Heart's in the Highlands

My Heart's in the Highlands, st. 1
Johnson's The Scots Musical Museum (1787-1796)

“We two have paddled in the stream,
from morning sun till dine;
But seas between us broad have roared
since days of long ago.”

Robert Burns

Robert Burns Quotes about nature

“Auld Nature swears, the lovely dears
Her noblest work she classes, O:
Her prentice han' she tried on man,
An' then she made the lasses, O.”

Robert Burns Green Grow the Rashes

Green Grow the Rashes, O, st. 5 (1787)

“Nature's law,
That man was made to mourn.”

Robert Burns

Man Was Made to Mourn, st. 4 (1786)

“The voice of Nature loudly cries,
And many a message from the skies,
That something in us never dies.”

Robert Burns

New Year's Day, st. 3 (1790)

“I'm truly sorry man's dominion
Has broken Nature's social union.”

Robert Burns To a Mouse

To a Mouse, st. 2 (1785)

“When Nature her great masterpiece designed,
And framed her last, best work, the human mind,
Her eye intent on all the wondrous plan,
She formed of various stuff the various Man.”

Robert Burns

To Robert Graham, st. 1 (1791)

“Beauty's of a fading nature
Has a season and is gone!”

Robert Burns

Will Ye Go and Marry Katie? (1764)

Robert Burns: Trending quotes

“Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie,
O, what a panic's in thy breastie!”

Robert Burns To a Mouse

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!

“The best laid schemes o' mice and men
Gang aft a-gley”

Robert Burns

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.

“Some hae meat and cann eat,
And some wad eat that want it;
But we hae meat, and we can eat,
And sae the Lord be thankit.”

Robert Burns

The Selkirk Grace (1793)

Robert Burns Quotes

“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.”

Robert Burns Ae fond kiss, and then we sever...

Ae Fond Kiss, And Then We Sever, st. 2
Johnson's The Scots Musical Museum (1787-1796)
Source: Robert Burns

“There is no such uncertainty as a sure thing.”

Robert Burns

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 <br class="br">Disputed <br class="br">Source: Collected Poems of Robert Burns

“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”

Robert Burns Ae fond kiss, and then we sever...

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.

“The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men,
Gang aft agley.
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!”

Robert Burns

To a Mouse, st. 7 (1785)
Source: Collected Poems of Robert Burns

“Not the bee upon the blossom,
In the pride o' sunny noon;
Not the little sporting fairy,
All beneath the simmer moon;
Not the poet, in the moment
Fancy lightens in his e'e,
Kens the pleasure, feels the rapture,
That thy presence gi'es to me.”

Robert Burns

“Some books are lies frae end to end,
And some great lies were never penn'd…”

Robert Burns

Death and Dr. Hornbook, st. 1 (1787)
Variant: Some books are lies frae end to end.

“Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to min'?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And days o' auld lang syne?”

Robert Burns

Auld Lang Syne, st. 1 (1788)

“Oh would some power the giftie gie us, To see ourselves as others see us.”

Robert Burns To a Louse

To a Louse, st. 8 (1786) http://www.poetry-online.org/burns_to_a_louse.htm <br class="br">Variant: O, wad some Power the giftie gie us<br>To see oursels as others see us!<br>It wad frae monie a blunder free us <br class="br">Source: The Complete Poetical Works of Robert Burns <br class="br">Context: O, wad some Power the giftie gie us<br>To see oursels as others see us!<br>It wad frae monie a blunder free us,<br>An&#x27; foolish notion.<br>What airs in dress an&#x27; gait wad lea&#x27;e us<br>An&#x27; ev&#x27;n Devotion

“Nursing her wrath to keep it warm.--Robert Burns”

Robert Burns

“Her cutty sark, o' Paisley harn,
That while a lassie she had worn,
In longitude tho' sorely scanty,
It was her best, and she was vauntie.”

Robert Burns Tam o' Shanter

Source: Tam o' Shanter (1790), Line 171

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

Robert Burns

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.”

Robert Burns Tam o' Shanter

Source: Tam o' Shanter (1790), Line 143

“While Europe's eye is fix'd on mighty things,
The fate of empires and the fall of kings;
While quacks of State must each produce his plan,
And even children lisp the Rights of Man;
Amid this mighty fuss just let me mention,
The Rights of Woman merit some attention.”

Robert Burns

The Rights of Woman, st. 1 (1792)

“Drumossie moor — Drumossie day —
A waefu' day it was to me!
For there I lost my father dear,
My father dear, and brethren three.”

Robert Burns

Lament for Culloden

“She is a winsome wee thing,
She is a handsome wee thing,
She is a lo'esome wee thing,
This sweet wee wife o' mine.”

Robert Burns

My Wife's a Winsome Wee Thing, chorus (1792)

“Flow gently, sweet Afton! amang thy green braes,
Flow gently, I'll sing thee a song in thy praise.
My Mary's asleep by thy murmuring stream,
Flow gently, sweet Afton, disturb not her dream.”

Robert Burns Sweet Afton

Sweet Afton, st. 1 (1789)

“Lay the proud usurpers low!
Tyrants fall in every foe!
Liberty's in every blow—
Let us do or die!”

Robert Burns Scots Wha Hae

Scots Wha Hae, st. 5 (1794)

“An atheist-laugh's a poor exchange
For Deity offended.”

Robert Burns

Stanza 9
Epistle to a Young Friend (1786)

“When chill November's surly blast
Made fields and forests bare.”

Robert Burns

Man was made to Mourn.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“I was na fou, but just had plenty.”

Robert Burns

Death and Dr. Hornbook, st. 3 (1787)

“Now a' is done that men can do,
And a' is done in vain.”

Robert Burns

It Was A' for Our Rightfu' King, st. 2
Johnson's The Scots Musical Museum (1787-1796)

“Ye see yon birkie, ca'd a lord,
Wha struts, an' stares, an' a' that;
Tho' hundreds worship at his word,
He's but a coof for a' that:
For a' that, an' a' that,
His ribband, star, an' a' that:
The man o' independent mind
He looks an' laughs at a' that.

A prince can mak a belted knight,
A marquis, duke, an' a' that;
But an honest man's abon his might,
Gude faith, he maunna fa' that!
For a' that, an' a' that,
Their dignities an' a' that;
The pith o' sense, an' pride o' worth,
Are higher rank than a' that.

Then let us pray that come it may,
(As come it will for a' that,)
That Sense and Worth, o'er a' the earth,
Shall bear the gree, an' a' that.
For a' that, an' a' that,
It's coming yet for a' that,
That Man to Man, the world o'er,
Shall brothers be for a' that.”

Robert Burns

A Man's A Man For A' That, st. 3-5 (1795)

“Stern Ruin's plowshare drives elate,
Full on thy bloom.”

Robert Burns To a Mountain Daisy

To a Mountain Daisy, st. 9 (1786)

“Wee, modest, crimson-tippèd flow'r,
Thou's met me in an evil hour;
For I maun crush amang the stoure
Thy slender stem:
To spare thee now is past my pow'r,
Thou bonie gem.”

Robert Burns To a Mountain Daisy

To a Mountain Daisy, st. 1 (1786)

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

Robert Burns

Epistle from Esopus to Maria
Posthumous Pieces (1799)

“Perhaps it may turn out a sang,
Perhaps turn out a sermon.”

Robert Burns

Stanza 1
Epistle to a Young Friend (1786)

“Where sits our sulky, sullen dame,
Gathering her brows like gathering storm,
Nursing her wrath to keep it warm.”

Robert Burns Tam o' Shanter

Source: Tam o' Shanter (1790), Line 10

“He wales a portion with judicious care;
And "Let us worship God" he says, with solemn air.”

Robert Burns The Cotter's Saturday Night

Stanza 12
The Cotter's Saturday Night (1786)

“Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled,
Scots, wham Bruce has aften led,
Welcome to your gory bed
Or to Victorie!

Now's the day, and now's the hour;
See the front o' battle lour!
See approach proud Edward's power—
Chains and slaverie!”

Robert Burns Scots Wha Hae

Scots Wha Hae, st. 1, 2 (1794)

“God knows, I'm no the thing I should be,
Nor am I even the thing I could be.”

Robert Burns

To The Reverend John M'Math, st. 8
Posthumous Pieces (1799)

“If there's a hole in a' your coats,
I rede you tent it;
A chield's aman you takin' notes,
And faith he'll prent it.”

Robert Burns

On the Late Captain Grose's Peregrinations Thro' Scotland, st. 1 (1793)

“Ye banks and braes o' bonny Doon,
How can ye bloom sae fresh and fair?
How can ye chant, ye little birds,
And I sae weary fu' o' care!
Thou'll break my heart, thou warbling bird,
That wantons thro' the flowering thorn!
Thou minds me o' departed joys,
Departed never to return.”

Robert Burns

The Banks o' Doon, st. 1
Johnson's The Scots Musical Museum (1787-1796)

“A gaudy dress and gentle air May slightly touch the heart;
But it's innocence and modesty
that polished the dart.”

Robert Burns Handsome Nell

Handsome Nell (1773) (also known as "My Handsome Nell"), st. 6.
Johnson's The Scots Musical Museum (1787-1796)

“Suspense is worse than disappointment.”

Robert Burns

Letter to Thomas Sloan, (1 September 1791)

“For a' that, and a' that
An' twice as muckle 's a' that,
I've lost but ane, I've twa behin',
I've wife eneugh for a' that.”

Robert Burns

The Jolly Beggars, chorus
Posthumous Pieces (1799)

“The white moon is setting behind the white wave,
And Time is setting with me, O!”

Robert Burns

Misquotation by W. B. Yeats of Burns&#x27;s &quot;Open the Door to me, Oh&quot; http://www.robertburns.org/works/397.shtml (1793) in Ideas of good and evil (1907), p. 241; the original reads: &quot;The wan Moon is setting beyond the white wave,/ And Time is setting with me, oh!&quot; <br class="br">Misattributed

“Address to the Unco Guid, st. 6 (1787)”

Robert Burns

“O Mary, at thy window be!
It is the wished, the trysted hour.”

Robert Burns Mary Morison

Mary Morison, st. 1 (1793)

“It's guid to be merry and wise,
It's guid to be honest and true,
It's guid to support Caledonia's cause
And bide by the buff and the blue.”

Robert Burns

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.”

Robert Burns

New Year's Day, st. 1 (1790)

“And may you better reck the rede,
Than ever did the adviser!”

Robert Burns

Stanza 11.
Epistle to a Young Friend (1786)

“Then gently scan your brother man,
Still gentler sister woman;
Tho' they may gang a kennin wrang,
To step aside is human.”

Robert Burns

Address to the Unco Guid, st. 7 (1787)

“Perhaps Dundee's wild-warbling measures rise,
Or plaintive Martyrs, worthy of the name.”

Robert Burns The Cotter's Saturday Night

Stanza 13
The Cotter's Saturday Night (1786)

“Some wee short hours ayont the twal.”

Robert Burns

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!”

Robert Burns

A Winter Night.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“Man's inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn.
Man was made to Mourn.”

Robert Burns

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.”

Robert Burns

Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad, chorus (1793)

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