83 Best Robert Burns Quotes That Are Timeless

1. “God knows, I’m no the thing I should be, Nor am I even the thing I could be.” – Robert Burns

2. “Suspense is worst than disappointment.” – Robert Burns

3. “Oh, stay, sweet warbling woodlark, stay, Nor quit for me the trembling spray, A hapless lover courts thy lay, Thy soothing, fond complaining.” – Robert Burns

4. “God help the teacher, if a man of sensibility and genius, when a booby father presents him with his booby son, and insists on lighting up the rays of science in a fellow’s head whose skull is impervious and inaccessible by any other way than a positive fracture with a cudgel.” – Robert Burns

5. “Some books are lies frae end to end.” – Robert Burns

6. “Gars auld claes look amaist as weel’s the new.” – Robert Burns

7. “Inspiring bold JohnBarleycorn! What dangers thou canst make us scorn! Wi’ usquebae, we’ll face the devil!” – Robert Burns

8. “The poor inhabitant below Was quick to learn and wise to know And keenly felt the friendly glow And softer flame; But thoughtless follies laid him low, And stain’d his name!” – Robert Burns

9. “I have a hundred times wished that one could resign life as an officer resigns a commission.” – Robert Burns

10. “The upright, honest-hearted man Who strives to do the best he can, Need never fear the church’s ban Or hell’s damnation.” – Robert Burns

11. “But to see her was to love her, Love but her, and love forever.” – Robert Burns

12. “It is cruelty to be humane to rebels, and humanity is cruelty.” – Robert Burns

13. “All my fears and cares are of this world; if there is another, an honest man has nothing to fear from it.” – Robert Burns

14. “A gaudy dress and gentle air May slightly touch the heart; But it’s innocence and modesty That polishes the dart.” – Robert Burns

15. “Beauty’s of a fading nature. Has a season and is gone!” – Robert Burns

16. “My heart is sair-I dare na tell, My heart is sair for Somebody.” – Robert Burns

17. “They never sought in vain that sought the Lord alright!” – Robert Burns

18. “Yon rose-buds in the morning-dew, How pure amang the leaves sae green!” – Robert Burns

19. “An honest man here lies at rest, the friend of man the friend of truth the friend of age and guide of youth. Few hearts like his with virtue warmed, few heads with knowledge so informed. If there’s another world, he lives in bliss. If there is none, he made the best of this.” – Robert Burns

20. “The heart that is generous and kind most resembles God.” – Robert Burns

21. “Learn taciturnity and let that be your motto!” – Robert Burns

22. “I want someone to laugh with me, someone to be grave with me, someone to please me and help my discrimination with his or her own remark, and at times, no doubt, to admire my acuteness and penetration.” – Robert Burns

23. “The best laid plans take 40 years to complete.” – Robert Burns

24. “Flow gently, sweet Afton, among thy green braes, Flow gently, I’ll sing thee a song in thy praise.” – Robert Burns

25. “Anticipation forward points the view.” – Robert Burns

26. “All-cheering Plenty, with her flowing horn, Led yellow Autumn, wreath’d with nodding corn.” – Robert Burns

27. “Oh the gift that God could give us, to see ourselves as others see us.” – Robert Burns

28. “Mankind is a science that defies definitions.” – Robert Burns

29. “But pleasure are like poppies spread, you sieze the flower, its bloom is spread” – Robert Burns

30. “Morality, thou deadly bane, Thy tens o’ thousands thou hast slain! Vain is his hope, whose stay an’ trust is In moral mercy, truth, and justice!” – Robert Burns

31. “When chill November’s surly blast make fields and forest bare.” – Robert Burns

32. “Why has a religious turn of mind always a tendency to narrow and harden the heart?” – Robert Burns

33. “To step aside is human.” – Robert Burns

34. “My Son, these maxims make a rule An lump them ay thegither: The Rigid Righteous is a fool, The Rigid Wise anither.” – Robert Burns

35. “When matters are desperate we must put on a desperate face.” – Robert Burns

36. “Mankind is an unco squad And muckle he may grieve thee.” – Robert Burns

37. “’T is sweeter for thee despairing Than aught in the world beside,-Jessy!” – Robert Burns

38. “Chords that vibrate sweetest pleasure Thrill the deepest notes of woe.” – Robert Burns

39. “Some wee short hour ayont the twal.” – Robert Burns

40. “Even thou who mournst the daisy’s fate, That fate is thine–no distant date; Stern Ruin’s ploughshare drives, elate, Full on thy bloom, Till crushed beneath the furrow’s weight Shall be thy doom!” – Robert Burns

41. “Dare to be honest and fear no labor.” – Robert Burns

42. “Let them cant about decorum, who have characters to lose!” – Robert Burns

43. “Man is a soldier and life must be fought.” – Robert Burns

44. “I’m truly sorry man’s dominion has broken Nature’s social union.” – Robert Burns

45. “Painters and poets have liberty to lie.” – Robert Burns

46. “The best laid schemes of mice and men often go astray” – Robert Burns

47. “I’ll be merry and free, I’ll be sad for nae-body; If nae-body cares for me, I’ll care for nae-body.” – Robert Burns

48. “Affliction’s sons are brothers in distress; A brother to relieve, how exquisite the bliss!” – Robert Burns

49. “Now’s the day and now’s the hour.” – Robert Burns

50. “The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” – Robert Burns

51. “Oatcakes are a delicate relish when eaten warm with ale.” – Robert Burns

52. “A women can make an average man great, and a great man average.” – Robert Burns

53. “Nae man can tether time or tide.” – Robert Burns

54. “Should the poor be flattered? – Shakespeare.” – Robert Burns

55. “A eunuch is a man who has had his work cut out for him.” – Robert Burns

56. “Good Lord, what is man! for as simple he looks, Do but try to develop his books and his crooks, With his depths and his shallows, his good and his evil, All in all, he’s a problem must puzzle the devil.” – Robert Burns

57. “Their sighing, canting, grace-proud faces, their three-mile prayers, and half-mile graces.” – Robert Burns

58. “By Oppression’s woes and pains! By your sons in servile chains! We will drain our dearest veins, But they shall be free! Lay the proud usurpers low! Tyrants fall in every foe! Liberty’s in every blow! Let us do or die!” – Robert Burns

59. “Life is but a day at most.” – Robert Burns

60. “Liberty’s in every blow! Let us do or die.” – Robert Burns

61. “But little Mouse, you are not alone, In proving foresight may be vain: The best laid schemes of mice and men Go often askew, And leave us nothing but grief and pain, For promised joy! Still you are blest, compared with me!” – Robert Burns

62. “Nature’s law, That man was made to mourn. Man’s inhumanity to man Makes countless thousands mourn! O Death, the poor man’s dearest friend, The kindest and the best!” – Robert Burns

63. “A prince can mak a belted knight, A marquis, duke, and a’ that; But an honest man’s aboon his might: Guid faith, he maunna fa’ that.” – Robert Burns

64. “What’s done we partly may compute, But know not what’s resisted.” – Robert Burns

65. “Man’s inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn!” – Robert Burns

66. “Even every ray of hope destroyed and not a wish to gild the gloom.” – Robert Burns

67. “My heart ‘s in the Highlands, my heart is not here; My heart ‘s in the Highlands a-chasing the deer.” – Robert Burns

68. “Even tho who mournst the daisies fate, that fate is thine.” – Robert Burns

69. “And let us mind, faint heart ne’er wan A lady fair. Wha does the utmost that he can Will whyles do mair.” – Robert Burns

70. “Look abroad through Nature’s range, Nature’s mighty law is change.” – Robert Burns

71. “Suspicion is a heavy armour and with its weight it impedes more than it protects.” – Robert Burns

72. “Farewell, my friends! farewell, my foes! My peace with these, my love with those. The bursting tears my heart declare; Farewell, the bonnie banks of Ayr.” – Robert Burns

73. “There is no such uncertainty as a sure thing.” – Robert Burns

74. “And like a passing thought, she fled In light away.” – Robert Burns

75. “Here’s to us. Who’s like us? Damn few, and they’re all dead.” – Robert Burns

76. “Now simmer blinks on flowery braes, And o’er the crystal streamlet plays.” – Robert Burns

77. “Love’s first snow-drop, virgin kiss.” – Robert Burns

78. “But to see her was to love her, Love but her, and love forever. Had we never lou’d sae kindly, Had we never lou’d sae blindly, Never met – or never parted – We had ne’er been broken hearted.” – Robert Burns

79. “Some hae meat and canna eat, And some wad eat that want it, But we hae meat and we can eat, And sae the Lord be thankit.” – Robert Burns

80. “Hope springs exulting on triumphant wing.” – Robert Burns

81. “Great for good, or great for evil.” – Robert Burns

82. “To make three guineas do the work of five.” – Robert Burns

83. “Now a’ is done that men can do, And a’ is done in vain.” – Robert Burns

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