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Quotes by Scottish Authors
"Universalism as an ideal is as old as nay, is probably much more ancient than the Christian ideal."
"Ingratitude is treason to mankind."
"The history of mankind is confined within a limited period, and from every quarter brings an intimation that human affairs have had a beginning."
"All I write about is what's happened to me and to people I know, and the better I know them, the more likely they are to be written about."
"Now here is a departure from the first principle of true ethics. Here we find ideas of moral wrong and moral right associated with something else than beneficial action. The consequent is, we lose sight of the real basis of morals, and substitute a false one."
"An intense anticipation itself transforms possibility into reality; our desires being often but precursors of the things which we are capable of performing."
"Knowledge conquered by labor becomes a possession - a property entirely our own."
"To inquire into what God has made is the main function of the imagination. It is aroused by facts, is nourished by facts; seeks for higher and yet higher laws in those facts; but refuses to regard science as the sole interpreter of nature, or the laws of science as the only region of discovery."
"Of this they drank half a pint every day, and sometimes more or less, as it operated, by way of gentle physic. Two others had each two oranges and one lemon given them every day. These they ate with greediness, at different times, upon an empty stomach."
"Hero-worship exists has existed and will forever exist universally among mankind."
"Consistency is very important when you're making films."
"Sarcasm I now see to be, in general, the language of the devil; for which reason I have long since as good as renounced it."
"Now this was one of the things I had been brought up to eschew like disgrace; it being held by my father neither the part of a Christian nor yet of a gentleman to set his own livelihood and fish for that of others, on the cast of painted pasteboard."
"Ignorance is no reason with a fool for holding his tongue."
"A different world cannot be built by indifferent people."
"You can forgive people who do not follow you through a philosophical disquisition; but to find your wife laughing when you had tears in your eyes, or staring when you were in a fit of laughter, would go some way towards a dissolution of the marriage."
"When these suckers had formed roots in the open ground, or kind of nursery where they were planted, they were looked over and the best taken up for potting."
"I had to go and sing with the musical director of the film, Simon Lee, who is just incredible, and it went great. I sang with him about five things, things we'd worked on. And then I went to sing for Andrew Lloyd Weber."
"Speak of change, and the world is in alarm. And yet where do we not see change?"
"My personal conviction is that science is concerned wholly with truth, not with ethics."
"Fortunately for England, all her imports are raw materials."
"The work of many of the greatest men, inspired by duty, has been done amidst suffering and trial and difficulty. They have struggled against the tide, and reached the shore exhausted."
"When you hear someone from the very north of Scotland speaking, I think its nice, very musical and harmonious."
"Shakespeare's name, you may depend on it, stands absurdly too high and will go down."
"I like to dance, but it's not my weekend activity. I'm not a clubber."
"The chief benefit, which results from philosophy, arises in an indirect manner, and proceeds more from its secret, insensible influence, than from its immediate application."
"Great ambition, the desire of real superiority, of leading and directing, seems to be altogether peculiar to man, and speech is the great instrument of ambition."
"I sometimes worry that all the beautiful things have been made."
"Look into the nature of things. Search out the grounds of your opinions, the for and against."
"Silence is as deep as eternity, speech a shallow as time."
"We measure our days out in steps of uncertainty not turning to see how far we've come. And peer down the highway from here to eternity and reach out for love on the run."
"I determined never to stop until I had come to the end and achieved my purpose."
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