Scotland famous quotes
Last updated: Sep 5, 2024
-
Scotland have this habit of kicking themselves in the foot
-- Alan Brazil -
Some of the Scotland players need to look themselves in the face.
-- Alan Brazil -
I come more to Scotland than I ever used to, so I feel more connected to it, more part of the zeitgeist. You know when you realize you have a choice and I'm choosing my homeland. It's funny: when you get older these things creep up to you.
-- Alan Cumming -
My mother's background was Scottish. She came from an old family, some of whom lived in upper New York State and some of whom had come over from Scotland.
-- Alan Hovhaness -
For me as leader my time is nearly over but for Scotland the campaign continues and the dream will never die,
-- Alex Salmond -
We are Scotland's independence generation. And our time is now
-- Alex Salmond -
I have travelled around the globe. I have seen the Canadian and American Rockies, the Andes, the Alps and the Highlands of Scotland, but for simple beauty, Cape Breton outrivals them all!
-- Alexander Graham Bell -
My father is from Newark in Nottinghamshire and my mother is from the very north of Ireland. They've ended up in Scotland, where my father - well, both of them - will always be seen as having come from somewhere else.
-- Ali Smith -
What most people don't understand is that UFOs are on a cosmic tourist route. That's why they're always seen in Arizona, Scotland, and New Mexico. Another thing to consider is that all three of those destinations are good places to play golf. So there's possibly some connection between aliens and golf.
-- Alice Cooper -
The South is one of those kingdoms of the mind, like India or Scotland, that are neat and understandable only to people who have never been there.
-- Alistair Cooke -
The question is not whether Scotland can survive as a separate state. Of course it could.
-- Alistair Darling -
So far Kat has been through all the Wa's she could think of, but Hale hadn't admitted to being Walter or Ward or Washington. He'd firmly denied both Warren and Waverly. Watson had prompted him to do a very bad Sherlock Holmes impersonation throughout a good portion of a train ride to Edinburgh, Scotland. And Wayne seemed so wrong she hadn't even tried. Hale was Hale. And not knowing what the W's stood for had become a constant reminder to Kat that, in life, there are some things that can be given but never stolen. Of course, that didn't stop her from trying.
-- Ally Carter -
My caddy today was a Scot and he told me that he was cheering for Australia, which I thought was a bit harsh. But generally I've been amazed at how many people have come up to me here in Scotland and said: 'I've never really watched cricket before, but I was hooked all summer.' It's great.
-- Andrew Strauss -
We Scots have a fierce pride in the things we do that others can never appreciate. I am the British No. 1, but I would prefer to be the British No. 1 from Scotland every time.
-- Andy Murray -
I met Jack Bruce, one of my heroes, in a studio while doing some recording. England had just beat Scotland in a big football match and I saw Jack trying to break into this refrigerator in the lounge, drunk out of his brain, and I didn't know what to say.
-- Andy Partridge -
Scotland can't afford to take their minds off the gas
-- Andy Townsend -
But I fear, my lot being cast in Scotland, that beauty would not be content.
-- Anne Boyd -
Both Plockton and the Isle of Muck in north-west Scotland are incredibly beautiful. Sadly, Plockton has been discovered by tourists because it's where they shot Hamish Macbeth.
-- Arabella Weir -
Our Scottish theory ... is that every country has need of Scotchmen, but that Scotland has no need of the citizens of any other country.
-- Arthur Balfour -
There are no crimes and no criminals in these days. What is the use of having brains in our profession? I know well that I have it in me to make my name famous. No man lives or has ever lived who has brought the same amount of study and of natural talent to the detection of crime which I have done. And what is the result? There is no crime to detect, or, at most, some bungling villainy with a motive so transparent that even a Scotland Yard official can see through it.
-- Arthur Conan Doyle -
It's Brazil 2 Scotland 1, so Scotland are back where they were at the start of the match
-- Barry Davies -
Melrose is the finest remaining specimen of Gothic architecture in Scotland. Some of the sculptured flowers in the cloister arches are remarkably beautiful and delicate, and the two windows - the south and east oriels - are of a lightness and grace of execution really surprising.
-- Bayard Taylor -
Remember I've seen a video tape of a Scotland-England match and I've seen him miss a chance from five yards. It was against England and he couldn't score. So what does that say?
-- Berti Vogts -
After I've been in America for a while, I get homesick for Scotland.
-- Billy Boyd -
Devolving APD to Scotland is merely tinkering with it. We have to get shot of this hated tax right across the country to ensure all of our airports are competing on level terms.
-- Brian Donohoe -
A glass of whisky in Scotland in the thirties cost less than a cup of tea.
-- Catherine Helen Spence -
The Scots are poor, cries surly English pride; True is the charge, nor by themselves denied. Are they not then in strictest reason clear, Who wisely come to mend their fortunes here?
-- Charles Churchill -
James's expedition to Scotland is wholly imaginary, though there appears to have been space for it during Henry's progress to the North to pay his devotions at Beverley Minster.
-- Charlotte Mary Yonge -
I'm looking forward to locking swords with Douglas Henshall and working against the stunning backdrop of Shetland. I came to Scotland a lot in the 70s and 80s in various theatre productions and of course to film Hallam Foe but this is the furthest I've ever been.
-- Ciaran Hinds -
I am attached to the west coast of Scotland - it's gorgeous to look at and challenging. You have to contend with the possibility of being blown away or rained on. And in the summer months you can be eaten alive by midges.
-- Clive Anderson -
I was brought up west southwest coast of Scotland and my mother and father had a music shop, and so I was surrounded by pianos and drums and guitars, and music, of course.
-- Colin Hay -
I grew up in Scotland in the 1970s. There was not much money. The most popular Christmas toy was probably a potato.
-- Craig Ferguson -
Scotland is a much lighter and more fun place than I thought it was. I was miserable when I was there. But it wasn't Scotland's fault. It was my circumstances. I was - I hate to say the word humbled - but that's what it felt like. I was wrong about this place. This is a great place full of very fun people.
-- Craig Ferguson -
We Americans live in a nation where the medical-care system is second to none in the world, unless you count maybe 25 or 30 little scuzzball countries like Scotland that we could vaporize in seconds if we felt like it.
-- Dave Barry -
We usually think that a strong economy leads to an increase in life satisfaction among the population. We found that's not the case in Scotland.
-- David Blanchflower -
I have no time for those who say there is no way Scotland could go it alone. I know first-hand the contribution Scotland and Scots make to Britain's success - so for me there's no question about whether Scotland could be an independent nation.
-- David Cameron -
We are also fortunate in being in quite a sheltered environment, in terms of people moving on to do other things, because there are relatively few companies in Scotland that are looking for the skill set that we've developed.
-- David Milne -
One of the attractive things about being in Scotland is that we have a very good pipeline of new people coming into the company from the excellent universities around us.
-- David Milne -
Salmon farming-the placement of large metal or mesh net cages in the ocean to grow fish-was pioneered in Norway in the 1960s. Since then, the industry has expanded to Scotland, Ireland, Canada, the US, and Chile, but is dominated by the same multinational corporations. Wherever it is practiced, net-cage salmon farming is controversial and raises serious environmental concerns.
-- David Suzuki -
America changed my life, but I still think of home and working in Scotland was an important part of that.
-- Davy Jones -
There's a real emphasis on being witty in Scotland, even in crime novels.
-- Denise Mina -
I meant it, Claire,' he said quietly. 'My life is yours. And it's yours to decide what we shall do, where we go next. To France, to Italy, even back to Scotland. My heart has been yours since first I saw ye, and you've held my soul and body between your two hands here, and kept them safe. We shall go as ye say.
-- Diana Gabaldon -
Remember, the Arctic didn't have any ice. And the Northwest Passage was wide open. They were raising grapes in Scotland for God sakes, had a huge winery. Iceland was a farming community. As some of the glaciers retreated they found villages that were covered with ice.
-- Don Young -
Scotland is the country above all others that I have seen, in which a man of imagination may carve out his own pleasures; there are so many inhabited solitudes.
-- Dorothy Wordsworth -
It was here in Edinburgh that in the 1980s I joined with many others to protest against Margaret Thatcher as she arrived to address the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
-- Douglas Alexander -
Over the next few days we want cities, towns and villages across the UK to send a message to Scotland: stay with us.
-- Ed Miliband -
I perceive two things in Scotland of the most fearful omen: ignorance of theological truth, and a readiness to pride themselves in and boast of it.
-- Edward Irving -
The Evangelical party in the Church of Scotland will lay all flat if they be not prevented.
-- Edward Irving -
I attempted to fish in Scotland and I managed to hook a dog. It was a horrible moment but the dog turned out to be fine.
-- Emily Blunt -
I've played in pipe bands in Scotland, and I've always played guitars and drums and stuff.
-- Ewan McGregor -
There is some really good crack when I come back here. This is where I learned to swear.
-- Ewan McGregor -
I loved being in Trainspotting and having to dive into the filthiest toilet in Scotland.
-- Ewan McGregor -
For 3 million you could give everyone in Scotland a shovel, and we could dig a hole so deep we could hand her over to Satan in person (on Margaret Thatcher)
-- Frankie Boyle -
Two negatives make a positive but only in Scotland do two positives make a negative: aye right.
-- Frankie Boyle -
Scotland is the best place in the whole world.
-- Gail Porter -
The "second sight" possessed by the Highlanders in Scotland is actually a foreknowledge of future events. I believe they possess this gift because they don't wear trousers.
-- Georg C. Lichtenberg -
While some of them acknowledge the obligation of natural morality in their mode of conducting their cases, and preserve their individual character as gentlemen, there are others who acknowledge no law, human or divine, but the law of Scotland.
-- George Combe -
In Scotland, when people congregate, they tend to argue and discuss and reason; in Orkney, they tell stories.
-- George Mackay Brown -
The English are not happy unless they are miserable, the Irish are not at peace unless they are at war, and the Scots are not at home unless they are abroad.
-- George Orwell -
When I went to Scotland to do another movie, I would sing with a coach up there and then when I went to New York I sang with a coach over there-I mean I've now sung with coaches in LA, New York, London, Glasgow, St Louis and Rio de Janeiro!
-- Gerard Butler -
In Scotland I'm just like a lot of other guys, but in America I'm seen as a very strong, masculine guy.
-- Gerard Butler -
The natural barriers between England and Scotland were not sufficient to prevent the extension of the Saxon settlements and kingdoms across the border.
-- Goldwin Smith -
I get the feeling a lot of politicians are there to help themselves financially, first and foremost. I don't really need to do that, and I thought if I could do something for sport in Scotland, that would be really fulfilling.
-- Gordon Strachan -
Do I miss football in Scotland? It keeps you really alive, that's for sure. Your heartbeat fluctuates. I'm flatlining at the moment which is actually quite nice but you need to go up and down to stay alive.
-- Gordon Strachan -
I just read an 800-page history of the Scottish Enlightenment and, honestly, I may as well just start it again now, because I cannot remember a single thing. I can barely remember where Scotland is.
-- Hugh Laurie -
Scotland small? Our multiform, infinite Scotland SMALL?
-- Hugh MacDiarmid -
In many ways, Scotland will benefit more than other parts of the UK when Universal Credit comes in. A larger percentage of people will see an increase in their income through moving into work or taking on more hours.
-- Iain Duncan Smith -
I believe that the Union Flag should change now to reflect the four nations of the United Kingdom - England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales
-- Ian Lucas -
I was born in the island of Ireland. I have Irish traits in me - we don't all have the traits of what came from Scotland, there is the celtic factor... and I am an Irishman because you cannot be an Ulsterman without being an Irishman
-- Ian Paisley -
I'm interested in Scotland now and then, how it's changed. I want to get the reader to think about that by thinking about something from the past. How has society changed, how has policing changed, have we changed philosophically, psychologically, culturally, spiritually?
-- Ian Rankin -
[About a tiresome colleague]: He could bore for Scotland.
-- Ian Rankin -
It's different in Scotland. People who come to readings are more interested in literature as such, but the readership in general is really quite diverse. It's a cliche, but it's said that people who read my books don't read any other books, and you do get that element.
-- Irvine Welsh -
There's nothing quite like a Scotch education. One is left with an irreparable debt. My head is full of irregular verbs still.
-- Ivor Cutler -
[Macbeth] is historically set in a place depicted by Shakespeare as brutal and violent, incredibly superstitious, and that's something that I do believe is Scottish.
-- James McAvoy -
She knew what he had in mind. He'll propose in Scotland on my birthday. There was no doubt as to what her answer would be.
-- Jana Oliver -
This is an unusual Scotland side because they have good players.
-- Javier Clemente -
My place in Scotland is in the middle of nowhere, so you've just got a keyboard, guitar, a little drum machine and you know if you can work stuff out like that, if you can hammer out songs that sound good just with those three things and a voice, you're on your way.
-- Jay Kay -
When New Labour came to power, we got a Right-wing Conservative government. I came to realise that voting Labour wasn't in Scotland's interests any more. Any doubt I had about that was cast aside for ever when I saw Gordon Brown cosying up to Margaret Thatcher in Downing Street.
-- Jimmy Reid -
Once again it was Gough who stood firm for Scotland in the air
-- Jock Brown -
Scotland cannot be the only 'something for nothing' country in the world.
-- Johann Lamont -
Scotland is my country, the nation that shaped me, that taught me my values. A nation whose achievements inspired and inspire me, a community whose failings drive me - drive my overwhelming desire to fight for social justice and equality.
-- Johann Lamont -
Scottish operative lodges began in the seventeenth century to admit non-operative members as accepted or gentleman masons and that by the early eighteenth century in some lodges the accepted or gentleman masons had gained the ascendancy: those lodges became, in turn speculative lodges, whilst others continued their purely operative nature. The speculative lodges eventually combined to form the Grand Lodge of Scotland in 1736.
-- John Hamill -
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.
-- John Muir -
Scotland is a great country and many wonderful things have come out of this country, however England gets the glory.
-- Joseph Hume -
I am legitimately Scottish. I can officially say — yes. Yeah, I am from Inverness in the Highlands of Scotland.
-- Karen Gillan -
My roots are Scottish. My dad's parents are from Scotland, and my mum's dad is Scots.
-- Katharine Isabelle -
I was born in Scotland and have lived there all my life. I speak conversational Cantonese with my dad when I'm at home, and very basic Mandarin.
-- Katie Leung -
I am wholeheartedly in favour of an independent Scotland.
-- Ken Stott -
England have the best fans in the world and Scotlands fans are second to none
-- Kevin Keegan -
In the late-'80s, there was a big push to make American football big in Scotland. The Super Bowl was on TV, but it didn't really catch on. When I was a kid, though, I became a big Miami Dolphins fan. I don't really know why - I just liked the logo, I guess. I didn't really know what was going on.
-- Kevin McKidd -
I would rather have a Scot come from Scotland togovern the people of this kingdom well and justly, than that you should govern them ill in the sight of all the world.
-- Konrad Lorenz -
If you make a film about a pig farmer in Wales and you are a huge hit as the pig farmer's wife, the next thing is you'll be asked to do a film about a sheep farmer in Scotland.
-- Kristin Scott Thomas -
The Navy's paid for you to go through school, and then they need doctors to go out and take care of people who are in various different parts of the world. I decided to pay back my time first as an undersea medical officer. I was stationed in Scotland.
-- Laurel Clark -
Any sport that comes from Scotland is good!
-- Leslie Nielsen -
It would be wrong to interpret the growth of British national consciousness in this period in terms of a new cultural and political uniformity being resolutely imposed on the peripheries of the island by its centre. For many poorer and less literate Britons, Scotland, Wales and England remained more potent rallying calls than Great Britain, except in times of danger from abroad. And even among the politically educated, it was common to think in terms of dual nationalities, not a single national identity.
-- Linda Colley -
I know there's some kind of history to mountain music-like it came from Ireland or England or Scotland and we kept up the tradition.
-- Loretta Lynn