Robert Burns Quotes

Robert Burns

Robert Burns Quotes

Discover lines from Robert Burns, Scottish writer.

by Esther Lombardi

Updated August 06, 2017

Recognized as one of the greatest Scottish writers of all time, Robert Burns had a great deal to say. He was born in 1759 and is perhaps the most well-known Scots language poet. However much of his poetry was also written in English, which often included the bluntest of his harsh political commentary. His English writing often included Scottish dialects. He was a charismatic pioneer of the Romantics literary movement.

His most famous work is "Auld Lang Syne" which is sung in many countries at the stroke of Midnight on New Year's Eve to help usher in the new year. Burns claims to have transcribed the folk song from an old man who'd had the song passed on to him. 

Here are a few quotes from Robert Burns.

• "Affliction's sons are brothers in distress; A brother to relieve, how exquisite the bliss!"
  - Robert Burns 
• "Ah, gentle dames! it gars we greet, To think how mony consels sweet, How mony lengthened, sage advices, The husband frae the wife despises."
  - Robert Burns 
• "And may you better reck the rede, than ever did th' adviser."
  - Robert Burns 
• "And there begins a lang digression about the lords o' the creation."
  - Robert Burns 
• "Dare to be honest and fear no labor."
  - Robert Burns 
• "Firmness in enduring and exertion is a character I always wish to possess. I have always despised the whining yelp of complaint and cowardly resolve."
  - Robert Burns 

• "His locked, lettered, braw brass collar, Shewed him the gentleman and scholar."
  - Robert Burns 
• "Liberty's in every blow! Let us do or die."
  - Robert Burns 
• "Man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn!"
  - Robert Burns 
• "Nae man can tether time or tide."
  - Robert Burns 
• "Nursing her wrath to keep it warm."
  - Robert Burns 

• "Prudent, cautious self-control is wisdom's root."
  - Robert Burns 
• "Suspense is worse than disappointment."
  - Robert Burns 
• "The daisy's for simplicity and unaffected air."
  - Robert Burns 
• "The snowdrop and primrose our woodlands adorn, and violets bathe in the wet o' the morn."
  - Robert Burns 
• "The wide world is all before us - but a world without a friend."
  - Robert Burns 
• "There is no such uncertainty as a sure thing."
  - Robert Burns 
• "To liken them to your auld- warld squad, I must needs say comparisons are odd."
  - Robert Burns 
• "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 

THOUGHT CO

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