Scotland Quotes

1. "My mother's background was Scottish. She came from an old family, some of whom lived in upper New York State and some of whom had come over from Scotland."
Author: Alan Hovhaness

2. "There was no word for self-pity in the language of the north-east of Scotland - the nearest being a word which is defined in the Scots dictionary as being 'a term used to express self-reproach on paying too much for something."
Author: Alexander McCall Smith

3. "And Edinburgh. He was proud of Edinburgh too, and of Scotland; and why not? Why should one not be proud of one's country - for a change?"
Author: Alexander McCall Smith

4. "Dear friends, he began, there is no timetable for happiness; it moves, I think, according to rules of its own. When I was a boy I thought I'd be happy tomorrow, as a young man I thought it would be next week; last month I thought it would be never. Today, I know it is now. Each of us, I suppose has at least one person who thinks that our manifest faults are worth ignoring; I have found mine, and am content. When we are far from home we think of home; I, who am happy today, think of those in Scotland for whom such happiness might seem elusive; may such powers as listen to what is said by people like me, in olive groves like this, grant to those who want a friendship a friend, attend to the needs of those who have little, hold the hand of those who are lonely, allow Scotland, our place, our country, to sing in the language of her choosing that song she has always wanted to sing, which is of brotherhood, which is of love."
Author: Alexander McCall Smith

5. "So far Kat has been through all the Wa's she could think of, but Hale hadn't admitted to being Walter or Ward or Washington. He'd firmly denied both Warren and Waverly. Watson had prompted him to do a very bad Sherlock Holmes impersonation throughout a good portion of a train ride to Edinburgh, Scotland. And Wayne seemed so wrong she hadn't even tried.Hale was Hale. And not knowing what the W's stood for had become a constant reminder to Kat that, in life, there are some things that can be given but never stolen.Of course, that didn't stop her from trying."
Author: Ally Carter

6. "I met Jack Bruce, one of my heroes, in a studio while doing some recording. England had just beat Scotland in a big football match and I saw Jack trying to break into this refrigerator in the lounge, drunk out of his brain, and I didn't know what to say."
Author: Andy Partridge

7. "There are no crimes and no criminals in these days. What is the use of having brains in our profession? I know well that I have it in me to make my name famous. No man lives or has ever lived who has brought the same amount of study and of natural talent to the detection of crime which I have done. And what is the result? There is no crime to detect, or, at most, some bungling villainy with a motive so transparent that even a Scotland Yard official can see through it."
Author: Arthur Conan Doyle

8. "There's just no place like Scotland when the sun is out. I just love coming home."
Author: Ashley Jensen

9. "Melrose is the finest remaining specimen of Gothic architecture in Scotland. Some of the sculptured flowers in the cloister arches are remarkably beautiful and delicate, and the two windows - the south and east oriels - are of a lightness and grace of execution really surprising."
Author: Bayard Taylor

10. "I ain't seen a herd the size of it, not even when the Scots drive the beeves down from Scotland to London."
Author: Bernard Cornwell

11. "A glass of whisky in Scotland in the thirties cost less than a cup of tea."
Author: Catherine Helen Spence

12. "It has long been a fact familiar to geologists, that, both on the east and west coasts of the central part of Scotland, there are lines of raised beaches, containing marine shells of the same species as those now inhabiting the neighbouring sea."
Author: Charles Lyell

13. "I exist in the eye of the storm, the calm in the centre of a perpetual hurricane of cars and lorries heading for the M6, the north and Scotland, or south to Penzance and Land's End. I sometimes wonder if they don't go on the motorway at all, that I hear the same vehicles circling endlessly, a kind of multiple Flying Dutchman, doomed to travel for ever. I don't regret for one minute that I am no longer one of them."
Author: Clare Morrall

14. "I was brought up west southwest coast of Scotland and my mother and father had a music shop, and so I was surrounded by pianos and drums and guitars, and music, of course."
Author: Colin Hay

15. "We Americans live in a nation where the medical-care system is second to none in the world, unless you count maybe 25 or 30 little scuzzball countries like Scotland that we could vaporize in seconds if we felt like it."
Author: Dave Barry

16. "We are also fortunate in being in quite a sheltered environment, in terms of people moving on to do other things, because there are relatively few companies in Scotland that are looking for the skill set that we've developed."
Author: David Milne

17. "If you can sell that you're the King of Scotland, or Henry V on a tiny stage in a studio theater somewhere, then you can probably sell that you're a starship captain or a time traveler."
Author: David Tennant

18. "There's a real emphasis on being witty in Scotland, even in crime novels."
Author: Denise Mina

19. "A peaceful refuge in which to rediscover each other, we thought,, not realizing that, while golf and fishing are Scotland's most popular outdoor sports, gossip is the most popular indoor sport."
Author: Diana Gabaldon

20. "No, Mr Crawford!' cried Philippa forbiddingly, and ducking under the snatching arms that tried to prevent her, she ran forward. ‘No! What harm can Sir Graham do now? What might the little boy become?' And sinking on her knees, she shook, in her vehemence, Lymond's bloodstained arm. ‘You castigate the Kerrs and the Scotts and the others, but what is this but useless vengeance? He can do us no harm; he can do Scotland no harm; he can do Malta no harm. There is a baby!' said Philippa, very loudly and insistently and desperately, as if Lymond could not hear her, or were too tired or too simple to understand. ‘There is a baby. You can't abandon your son!"
Author: Dorothy Dunnett

21. "Nobody ever," said the Dowager sorrowfully, "credits me with normal thought processes. When a mysterious man creates a royal scandal on the banks of the Lake of Menteith with the keenest ears in Scotland strolling utterly oblivious—by her own account—in the locality, I begin to wonder. I also wonder when a delicately reared child sends a court into fits with a riddle which I invented myself."
Author: Dorothy Dunnett

22. "The war between England and Scotland was in its eighth year and there had been no raid for ten days: it had seemed possible to get married in peace."
Author: Dorothy Dunnett

23. "Moving forward quietly to Jerott's side, Adam Blacklock had heard. ‘Don't you understand? The authorities are afraid of them both,' he said gently. ‘Why do you supose this cordon is here, which only an unarmed girl was allowed to pass through? Lymond, loyal to Scotland, might be a threat to French power greater than even Gabriel, one of these days—Philippa!' And a wordless shout, like a cry at a cockfight, rose among the stone pillars and sank muffled into the old, dusty banners above the choir roof. For Philippa Somerville, who believed in action when words were not enough, had leaned over and snatched the knife from Lymond's left hand."
Author: Dorothy Dunnett

24. "I perceive two things in Scotland of the most fearful omen: ignorance of theological truth, and a readiness to pride themselves in and boast of it."
Author: Edward Irving

25. "The thing which grieves and oppresses my heart with respect to poor Scotland, is the hardness of heart manifest in the levity and cruelty with which they speak of others."
Author: Edward Irving

26. "The Evangelical party in the Church of Scotland will lay all flat if they be not prevented."
Author: Edward Irving

27. "The lengths to which you're prepared to go to please a housekeeper make me wonder about the servant situation in Scotland. Good help must be thin on the ground." Vale widened his eyes and took a drink."She's more to me than a housekeeper," Alistair growled."Wonderful!" Vale slapped him on the back. "And about time, too. I was beginning to worry that all your important bits might've atrophied and fallen off from disuse."He felt unaccustomed heat climb his throat. "Vale…"
Author: Elizabeth Hoyt

28. "England has her Stratford, Scotland has her Alloway, and America, too, has her Dresden. For there, on August 11, 1833, was born the greatest and noblest of the Western World; an immense personality, -- unique, lovable, sublime; the peerless orator of all time, and as true a poet as Nature ever held in tender clasp upon her loving breast, and, in words coined for the chosen few, told of the joys and sorrows, hopes, dreams, and fears of universal life; a patriot whose golden words and deathless deeds were worthy of the Great Republic; a philanthropist, real and genuine; a philosopher whose central theme was human love, -- who placed 'the holy hearth of home' higher than the altar of any god; an iconoclast, a builder -- a reformer, perfectly poised, absolutely honest, and as fearless as truth itself -- the most aggressive and formidable foe of superstition -- the most valiant champion of reason -- Robert G. Ingersoll."
Author: Greatest

29. "Iceland, though it lies so far to the north that it is partly within the Arctic Circle, is, like Norway, Scotland, and Ireland, affected by the Gulf Stream, so that considerable portions of it are quite habitable."
Author: Harry Johnston

30. "I have family dotted everywhere - Dad's in California; I've got aunts in Scotland and Virginia; family in Kansas City; family in Manchester and London."
Author: Hayley Atwell

31. "I just read an 800-page history of the Scottish Enlightenment and, honestly, I may as well just start it again now, because I cannot remember a single thing. I can barely remember where Scotland is."
Author: Hugh Laurie

32. "[About a tiresome colleague]: He could bore for Scotland."
Author: Ian Rankin

33. "It was, as the song said, ‘call to arms music,' and seemed to have little to do with Scotland and New Year. It was fighting music. Stevie didn't want to fight anyone. But it was also beautiful music."
Author: Irvine Welsh

34. "But I do like Scotland. I like the miserable weather. I like the miserable people, the fatalism, the negativity, the violence that's always just below the surface. And I like the way you deal with religion. One century you're up to your lugs in it, the next you're trading the whole apparatus in for Sunday superstores. Praise the Lord and thrash the bairns. Ask and ye shall have the door shut in your face. Blessed are they that shop on the Sabbath, for they shall get the best bargains. Oh yes, this is a very fine country."
Author: James W. Robertson

35. "And now she was just Gabby, currently staying in a dreamy, magnificent castle in Scotland with a Fae prince who did all kinds of non-nasty, non-inhuman things like tearing up lists of names, and returning tadpoles to lakes, and saving people's lives. Not to mention kissing with all the otherwordly splendor of a horny angel."
Author: Karen Marie Moning

36. "How reassuring." - Queen Elizabeth, when told during a walking tour of Scotland that she looks like the Queen"
Author: Kate Petrella

37. "You should have been a jester instead of a knight. (Sin)True, but jesters don't get to carry a sword. Personally, I like my sword. You know, the whole knight images really makes the ladies lust for me. Not that any have lusted for me recently, since I have only been in the company of married women, but one is ever hopeful…Oh, wait, I'm in Scotland, where they hate us English. Damn, my chances with the women have just fallen to nil. Wasn't there a monastery a few leagues back? Mayhap I should go take my vows and just save myself the embarrassment of being sneered at. (Simon)"
Author: Kinley MacGregor

38. "The Navy's paid for you to go through school, and then they need doctors to go out and take care of people who are in various different parts of the world. I decided to pay back my time first as an undersea medical officer. I was stationed in Scotland."
Author: Laurel Clark

39. "There are three men on a train. One of them is an economist and one of them is a logician and one of them is a mathematician. And they have just crossed the border into Scotland and they see a brown cow (and the cow is standing parralel tot the train). And the economist says, 'Look, the cows in Scotland are brown.' And the logician sais, 'No. there are cows in Scotland of which one, at least, is brown.'And the mathematician says, 'No. There is at least one cow in Scotland, of which one side appears to be brown."
Author: Mark Haddon

40. "Liam was too Scottish-''Oh but so Scottish, Bel! Come on, the bagpipes? The interminable quotations from Braveheart? Anyone who's proud of coming from Scotland obviously has issues-"
Author: Paul Murray

41. "Americans may say they love our accents (I have been accused of sounding 'like Princess Di') but the more thoughtful ones resent and rather dislike us as a nation and people, as friends of mine have found out by being on the edge of conversations where Americans assumed no Englishmen were listening.And it is the English, specifically, who are the targets of this. Few Americans have heard of Wales. All of them have heard of Ireland and many of them think they are Irish. Scotland gets a sort of free pass, especially since Braveheart re-established the Scots' anti-English credentials among the ignorant millions who get their history off the TV."
Author: Peter Hitchens

42. "All was well, until I reached the port of Havre. Three officers with the rank of lieutenant, whom afterwards I knew to be Scotland Yard men, came aboard and demanded to see my papers which they took away from me."
Author: Philip Gibbs

43. "You still haven't told me what King Edward will do when he has all four relics,' Robert said, fixing Humphrey with his gaze.‘We aren't privy to all his plans, Robert, as I've told you. Only the men of the Round Table know his full intentions. We have to prove ourselves worthy to be trusted as they are.'‘Do you not ever wonder?'Humphrey paused. ‘I just know my kingwill do what is best for my kingdom.'Robert said nothing. He thought of hisown kingdom, beleaguered by Edward'sinterference, and a ghost of a threat drifted in his mind.But even as it appeared, he pushed itaway. Scotland was its own kingdom, with its own king. It wasn't Wales or Ireland, fractured and isolated. However much Edward had desired the Crown of Arthur he had come here, first and foremost, to put down a rebellion. Yet still, on this bleak shore with Humphrey beside him, Robert felt a sense of standing at a crossroads with many paths leading away before him. In his mind they all led into darkness."
Author: Robyn Young

44. "At that moment, Robert saw James Stewart turn to him. A jolt went through him as the steward nodded. Before anyone could begin speaking again, he headed out of the crowd towards Wallace, leaving his men looking on in surprise.‘We have chosen to elect this man as our guardian.' Robert's voice was harsh as he gestured to Wallace. ‘But he is still just the son of a knight.'‘You dare to challenge his election?' demanded Adam. Other shouts of scorn and ire joined his.‘On the contrary,' answered Robert, ‘I am suggesting that a man of William Wallace's achievements, a man who is to be sole guardian of Scotland, bears a title befitting his prowess.' He faced the crowd. ‘I, Sir Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick, offer William Wallace the honour of a knighthood.' He turned to Wallace. ‘If he will bend before me."
Author: Robyn Young

45. "Scotland consistently produces world-class writers."
Author: Sara Sheridan

46. "I left Scotland when I was 16 because I had no qualifications for anything but the Navy, having left school at 13."
Author: Sean Connery

47. "We Slovenians are even better misers than you Scottish. You know how Scotland began? One of us Slovenians was spending too much money, so we put him on a boat and he landed in Scotland."
Author: Slavoj Žižek

48. "I love Scotland, mainly for its landscape. I like walking, and it's a great place to go hiking."
Author: Toby Stephens

49. "In 2003 Scotland had 36 new business registrations per 10,000 adults. It's still the same."
Author: Tom Hunter

50. "I started out in Scotland, not as a footballer of any note, and I didn't play to draw the attention of people abroad."
Author: Walter Smith

Scotland Quotes Pictures