“One or two of these scoundrel statesmen should be shot once a-year, just to keep the others on their good behavior.”

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.

The half hour between waking and rising has all my life proved propitious to any task which was exercising my invention… It was always when I first opened my eyes that the desired ideas thronged upon me.

Look back, and smile on perils past.

Come fill up my cup, come fill up my can, Come saddle your horses, and call up your men; Come open the West Port, and let me gang free, And it’s room for the bonnets of Bonny Dundee!

Then hush thee, my darling, take rest while you may, For strife comes with manhood, and waking with day.

Greatness of any kind has no greater foe than a habit of drinking.

When true friends meet in adverse hour; ‘Tis like a sunbeam through a shower. A watery way an instant seen, The darkly closing clouds between.

To the timid and hesitating everything is impossible because it seems so.

I like a highland friend who will stand by me not only when I am in the right, but when I am a little in the wrong.

And better had they ne’er been born, Who read to doubt, or read to scorn.

Each age has deemed the new-born year the fittest time for festal cheer.

Crystal and hearts would lose all their merit in the world if it were not for their fragility.

Heap on more wood! – the wind is chill; But let it whistle as it will, We’ll keep our Christmas merry still.

Real valor consists not in being insensible to danger; but in being prompt to confront and disarm it.

Sleep in peace, and wake in joy.

If you once turn on your side after the hour at which you ought to rise, it is all over. Bolt up at once.