“For he that does good, having the unlimited power to do evil, deserves praise not only for the good which he performs, but for the evil which he forbears.”
― Walter Scott, quote from Ivanhoe
“We are like the herb which flourisheth most when trampled upon”
― Walter Scott, quote from Ivanhoe
“I have heard men talk about the blessings of freedom," he said to himself, "but I wish any wise man would teach me what use to make of it now that I have it.”
― Walter Scott, quote from Ivanhoe
“Chivalry!---why, maiden, she is the nurse of pure and high affection---the stay of the oppressed, the redresser of grievances, the curb of the power of the tyrant ---Nobility were but an empty name without her, and liberty finds the best protection in her lance and her sword.”
― Walter Scott, quote from Ivanhoe
“I envy thee not thy faith, which is ever in thy mouth but never in thy heart nor in thy practice”
― Walter Scott, quote from Ivanhoe
“Silence, maiden; thy tongue outruns thy discretion.”
― Walter Scott, quote from Ivanhoe
“I will tear this folly from my heart, though every fibre bleed as I rend it away!”
― Walter Scott, quote from Ivanhoe
“In the name of God!" said Gurth, "how came they prisoners? and to whom?"
"Our master was too ready to fight," said the Jester, "and Athelstane was not ready enough, and no other person was ready at all.”
― Walter Scott, quote from Ivanhoe
“I forgive you, Sir Knight," said Rowena, "as a Christian."
"That means," said Wamba, "that she does not forgive him at all.”
― Walter Scott, quote from Ivanhoe
“I have sought but a kindred spirit to share it, and I have found such in thee.”
― Walter Scott, quote from Ivanhoe
“Certainly," quoth Athelstane, "women are the least to be trusted of all animals, monks and abbots excepted.”
― Walter Scott, quote from Ivanhoe
“Thou hast had thty day, old dame, but thy sun has long been set. Thou art now the very emblem of an old warhorse turned out on the barren heath; thou hast had thy paces in thy time, but now a broken amble is the best of them.”
― Walter Scott, quote from Ivanhoe
“He that does good, having the unlimited power to do evil, deserves praise not only for the good which he performs, but for the evil which he forbears.”
― Walter Scott, quote from Ivanhoe
“And my father!-oh, my father! evil is it with his daughter, when his grey hairs are not remembered because of the golden locks of youth!”
― Walter Scott, quote from Ivanhoe
“The lovers of the chase say that the hare feels more agony during the pursuit of the greyhounds, than when she is struggling in their fangs.”
― Walter Scott, quote from Ivanhoe
“Now, it is well known, that a man may with more impunity be guilty of an actual breach either of real good breeding or of good morals, than appear ignorant of the most minute point of fashionable etiquette.”
― Walter Scott, quote from Ivanhoe
“…having once seen him put forth his strength in battle, methinks I could know him again among a thousand warriors. He rushes into the fray as if he were summoned to a banquet. There is more than mere strength--there seems as if the whole soul and spirit of the champion were given to every blow which he deals upon his enemies. God assoilzie him of the sin of bloodshed! It is fearful, yet magnificent, to behold how the arm and heart of one man can triumph over hundreds.”
― Walter Scott, quote from Ivanhoe
“Meantime the clang of the bows and the shouts of the combatants mixed fearfully with the sound of the trumpets, and drowned the groans of those who fell, and lay rolling defenceless beneath the feet of the horses. The splendid armour of the combatants was now defaced with dust and blood, and gave way at every stroke of the sword and battle-axe. The gay plumage, shorn from the crests, drifted upon the breeze like snowflakes. All that was beautiful in the martial array had disappeared, and what was now visibke was only calculated to awaken terror or compassion.”
― Walter Scott, quote from Ivanhoe
“the worst evil which befalls our race is, that when we are wronged and plundered, all the world laughs around, and we are compelled to suppress our sense of injury, and to smile tamely, when we would revenge bravely.”
― Walter Scott, quote from Ivanhoe
“Revenge is a feast for the
gods!”
― Walter Scott, quote from Ivanhoe
“Thou and I are but the blind instruments of some irresistible fatality, that hurries us along, like ships driving before the storm, which are dashed against each other, and so perish”
― Walter Scott, quote from Ivanhoe
“Thus do men throw on fate the issue of their own wild passions.”
― Walter Scott, quote from Ivanhoe
“As he offered to advance, she exclaimed, "Remain where thou art, proud Templar, or at thy choice advance!--one foot nearer, and I plunge myself from the precipice; my body shall be crushed out of the very form of humanity upon the stones of that courtyard ere it become the victim of thy brutality!”
― Walter Scott, quote from Ivanhoe
“adversity bends the heart as fire bends the stubborn steel, and those who are no longer their own governors, and the denizens of their own free independent state, must crouch before strangers.”
― Walter Scott, quote from Ivanhoe
“Thy resolution may fluctuate on the wild and changeful billows of human opinion, but mine is anchored on the Rock of Ages.”
― Walter Scott, quote from Ivanhoe
“Rebecca! she who could prefer death to dishonor must have a proud and powerful soul!”
― Walter Scott, quote from Ivanhoe
“…having once seen him put forth his strength in battle, methinks I could know him again among a thousand warriors. He rushes into the fray as if he were summoned to a banquet. There is more than mere strength—there seems as if the whole soul and spirit of the champion were given to every blow which he deals upon his enemies. God assoilzie him of the sin of bloodshed! It is fearful, yet magnificent, to behold how the arm and heart of one man can triumph over hundreds.”
― Walter Scott, quote from Ivanhoe
“Chivalry!—why, maiden, she is the nurse of pure and high affection—the stay of the oppressed, the redresser of grievances, the curb of the power of the tyrant—Nobility were but an empty name without her, and liberty finds the best protection in her lance and her sword.”
― Walter Scott, quote from Ivanhoe
“Is death the last sleep? No, it is the last final awakening.”
― Walter Scott, quote from Ivanhoe
“God of Jacob! it is the meeting of two fierce tides - the conflict of two oceans moved by adverse winds!”
― Walter Scott, quote from Ivanhoe
Walter Scott
Born place: in Edinburgh, Scotland
Born date August 15, 1771
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“On his coronation in 1802, Gia-long wished to call his realm ‘Nam Viêt’ and sent envoys to gain Peking’s assent. The Manchu Son of Heaven, however, insisted that it be ‘Viêt Nam.’ The reason for this inversion is as follows: ‘Viêt Nam’ (or in Chinese Yüeh-nan) means, roughly, ‘to the south of Viêt (Yüeh),’ a realm conquered by the Han seventeen centuries earlier and reputed to cover today’s Chinese provinces of Kwangtung and Kwangsi, as well as the Red River valley. Gia-long’s ‘Nam Viêt,’ however, meant ‘Southern Viêt/Yüeh,’ in effect a claim to the old realm. In the words of Alexander Woodside, ‘the name “Vietnam” as a whole was hardly so well esteemed by Vietnamese rulers a century ago, emanating as it had from Peking, as it is in this century. An artificial appellation then, it was used extensively neither by the Chinese nor by the Vietnamese. The Chinese clung to the offensive T’ang word “Annam” . . . The Vietnamese court, on the other hand, privately invented another name for its kingdom in 1838–39 and did not bother to inform the Chinese. Its new name, Dai Nam, the “Great South” or “Imperial South,” appeared with regularity on court documents and official historical compilations. But it has not survived to the present.’3 This new name is interesting in two respects. First, it contains no ‘Viet’-namese element. Second, its territorial reference seems purely relational – ‘south’ (of the Middle Kingdom).4 That today’s Vietnamese proudly defend a Viêet Nam scornfully invented by a nineteenth-century Manchu dynast reminds us of Renan’s dictum that nations must have ‘oublié bien des choses,’ but also, paradoxically, of the imaginative power of nationalism. If”
― Benedict Anderson, quote from Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism
“Well, she thought, I'm certainly bright. She had wanted to meet a new boy and when she finally did meet one she didn't even find out his name”
― Beverly Cleary, quote from Fifteen
“Woe to the heart that has not loved in youth!”
― Ivan Turgenev, quote from Home of the Gentry
“It was quite unlike their friendly discourse of some days before, and presently Stephen grew sadly bored: lies or half-lies, he reflected, had a certain value in that they gave a picture of what the man would wish to seem; but a very few were enough for that. And then they had a striving, aggressive quality, as though the listener had to be bludgeoned into admiration; they were the antithesis of conversation.”
― Patrick O'Brian, quote from The Mauritius Command
“It was 1976.
It was one of the darkest days of my life when that nurse, Mrs. Shimmer, pulled out a maxi pad that measured the width and depth of a mattress and showed us how to use it. It had a belt with it that looked like a slingshot that possessed the jaw-dropping potential to pop a man's head like a gourd. As she stretched the belt between the fingers of her two hands, Mrs. Shimmer told us becoming a woman was a magical and beautiful experience.
I remember thinking to myself, You're damn right it had better be magic, because that's what it's going to take to get me to wear something like that, Tinkerbell! It looked like a saddle. Weighed as much as one, too. Some girls even cried.
I didn't.
I raised my hand.
"Mrs. Shimmer," I asked the cautiously, "so what kind of security napkins do boys wear when their flower pollinates? Does it have a belt, too?"
The room got quiet except for a bubbling round of giggles.
"You haven't been paying attention, have you?" Mrs. Shimmer accused sharply. "Boys have stamens, and stamens do not require sanitary napkins. They require self control, but you'll learn that soon enough."
I was certainly hoping my naughty bits (what Mrs. Shimmer explained to us was like the pistil of a flower) didn't get out of control, because I had no idea what to do if they did.”
― Laurie Notaro, quote from The Idiot Girls' Action-Adventure Club: True Tales from a Magnificent and Clumsy Life
Songs of the Doomed:...
Tempest's Legacy
The Changeover
ScaramoucheBookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
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