Scottish Quotations - Page 5
John Muir
"There is no sunlight in the poetry of exile. There is only mist, wind, rain, the cry of the curlew and the slow clouds above damp moorland. That is the real Scotland; that is the Scotland whose memory rings the withers of the far-from-home; and, in some way that is mysterious, that is the Scotland that even a stranger learns to love".
H V Morton, English travel writer, in his classic book "In Search of Scotland" written in 1929.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Aberdeen impresses the stranger as a city of granite palaces, inhabited by people as definite as their building material."
H V Morton in the book "In Search of Scotland"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "On my lonely walks I have often thought how fine it would be to have the company of Burns. And indeed he was always with me, for I had him in my heart. On my first long walk from Indiana to the Gulf of Mexico I carried a copy of Burns's poems and sang them all the way. Wherever a Scotsman goes, here goes Burns. His grand whole, catholic soul squares with the good of all; therefore we find him in everything, everywhere.
From John Muir, naturalist and founder of the National Parks system in the USA (and born in Dunbar, Scotland, in 1838)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "We all know that Prime Ministers are wedded to the truth, but like other wedded couples, they sometimes live apart"
"Saki" - otherwise known as H H Munro (1870-1916)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chic Murray (1919-1985) was a well loved Scottish comedian who had a droll style and unique delivery. Here are some examples.
"This friend of mine had a terrible upbringing. When his mother lifted him up to feed him, his father rented the pram out. Then when they came into money later, his mother hired a woman to push the pram - and he's been pushed for money since! I asked him once what his ambition was and he replied it was to have an ambition. In the end tragedy struck - as he lay on his death bed he confessed to three murders. Then he got better"
"I got up and crossed the landing and went down the stairs. Mind you, if there had been no stairs there I wouldn't even have attempted it
I went to the butchers to buy a leg of lamb. 'Is it Scotch?' I asked. 'Why?' the butcher asked. 'Are you going to talk to it or eat it?' 'In that case, have you got any wild duck?' 'No,' he said, 'but I've got one I could aggravate for you.'
"I rang the bell of a small bed-and breakfast place, whereupon a lady appeared at an outside window. "What do you want?" she asked. "I want to stay here," I replied. "Well, stay there then," she said and banged the window shut.
"My wife went to a beauty parlour and got a mud pack. For two days she looked nice, then the mud fell off. She's a classy girl though, at least all her tattoos are spelt right."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sir James Murray, although the first editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, believed that language was not dry and rigid but constantly changing and developing. He wrote:
"Language is mobile and liable to change. It is a free country, and man may call a "vase" a "vawse", a "vahse", a "vaze", or a "vase", as he pleases. And why should he not? We do not all think alike, walk alike, dress alike, write alike, or dine alike; why should not we use our liberty in speech also, so long as the purpose of speech, to be intelligible, and its grace, are not interfered with?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "It's wee surprises like that which keep our marriage alive"
Rab C Nesbitt, after his wife has clubbed him over the head for coming home drunk, in the TV comedy about Govan's famous personality.
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