Robert Burns: Trending quotes

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Robert Burns: 228   quotes 12   likes

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

Epistle to Davie, st. 2 (1786)

“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!

“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.

“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

“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”

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!”

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!