Top 94 The Scots Quotes
#1. He tolerated his fellow Englishmen, but the Welsh were cabbage-farting dwarves, the Scots were scabby arse-suckers, and the French were shriveled turds.
Bernard Cornwell
#2. The more a climate can be created in which neither the English nor the Scots are given cause to resent each other, the better.
Simon Heffer
#3. I think most of the world would like to be Scottish. All the Americans who come here never look for English blood or Welsh, only for Scottish and Irish. It's understandable. The Scots effectively created the face of the modern world: the railways, the bridges, the tunnels.
Joanna Lumley
#4. Like John Major in her wake, Thatcher was convinced that she understood the Scots - yet couldn't understand why we remained so stubbornly resistant towards the notion of understanding her.
Charles Kennedy
#6. The Scots are a very tough people. They have drive-by headbuttings. In Glasgow a sweatband is considered a silencer.
Emo Philips
#7. I ain't seen a herd the size of it, not even when the Scots drive the beeves down from Scotland to London.
Bernard Cornwell
#8. I was a good soldier in the British Army. I was born in a very, very poor family. And I enlisted to escape hunger. But my officers were Scottish and they loved me. The Scots are good, you know.
Idi Amin
#9. The Scots language is a mark of the distinctive identity of the Scottish people; and as such we should be concerned to preserve it, even if there were no other reason, because it is ours. This statement requires neither explanation nor apology.
J.Derrick McClure
#10. I don't know a lot about the Scots, but I'm aware they have beaten some of the English counties in the NCL and have gone close in other matches,
Justin Langer
#11. I come from a very critical culture. You know the Scots. They're always saying: 'Oh, no. It will never work. You'll never amount to anything. You've got to know your place in the world.'
Craig Ferguson
#12. Everyone knows how creative the Scots are.
They're always sculpting, painting, singing songs, & writing plays.
They invented television, the telephone, & deep-fried Mars bars.
David Baillie
#13. 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
#14. For the first time, Lake began to think there was something behind the Romans' reasoning when they built Hadrian's Wall to keep the Scots out of England.
Janet Elizabeth Henderson
#15. The Scots are the backbone of Canada. They are all right in their three vital parts - head, heart and haggis.
William Osler
#16. Of the insolence of the Scots, my father used to say, there is no end.
Bernard Cornwell
#17. Scots they're either nice or they're horrid and these two are horrid. The Scots wont like that Eamon, thats bordering on racism. Its not racism its ethnic criticism Bill.
Eamon Dunphy
#18. This is not to say that the Scots are not fine people, but they were all sort of ... well, my grandfather was a minister and sort of Protestant, and this was rather depressing to me.
Alan Hovhaness
#19. Frugal is an old-fashioned, mostly unused word and frugality is is an old-fashioned mostly unused virtue that has been waiting for hard times to come back. The Scots have another word for it - canny.
Keith Smith, Hard Times Handbook, 1984
Keith Smith
#20. As I spread my wings in politics, I discovered many Thatcher voters down south who were the same kind of people who loathed her in Scotland. They were puzzled by the Scots' antipathy, given the Falklands war and the strong militaristic history of the Highlands and elsewhere.
Charles Kennedy
#21. There was no word for self-pity in the language of the north-east of Scotland - the nearest being a word which is defined in the Scots dictionary as being 'a term used to express self-reproach on paying too much for something.
Alexander McCall Smith
#22. Dealing with the Scots, my father had always said, was like trying to geld wildcats with your teeth, but luckily the wildcats spent much of their time fighting each other. Once
Bernard Cornwell
#23. Kenneth MacAlpin unifies the Picts and the Scots.
Frommers
#24. Of all the small nations of this earth, perhaps only the ancient Greeks surpass the Scots in their contribution to mankind.
Winston S. Churchill
#25. Even the pious Scots, locked throughout history in a long-drawn-out battle with their arch-enemies the Scots, managed a few burnings to while away the long winter evenings.
Terry Pratchett
#26. 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
#27. The Scots take what they want when they want it. She also said they have special preferences." "And what might those be?" Beak asked. "Strong horses, fat sheep, and soft women," Mary said. "Horses, sheep, and women?
Julie Garwood
#28. What happened in 1603?" Grant asked, his mind still on Tyrrel. "We had the Scots tied to our tails for good." "Better than having them at our throats every five minutes.
Josephine Tey
#29. While traveling in this highly idiosyncratic country, it became clear to me that the Scots did not like the English.
Joe Queenan
#30. If global warming meant temperatures rose by one or two degrees, France would become a desert, which would be no bad thing. The Scots would grow wine and make buffalo mozzarella.
Michael O'Leary
#31. Some men prayed for life and some for death, in languages as varied as their uniforms - the Dutch and Germans and the Scots and French and English tangled side by side, for all men looked alike when they were dying.
Susanna Kearsley
#32. The Irish seem to have more fire about them than the Scots.
Sean Connery
#33. In perseverance, in self command, in forethought, in all virtues which conduce to success in life, the Scots have never been surpassed.
Thomas B. Macaulay
#34. Of this diversion the Scots are so fond, that, when the weather will permit, you may see a multitude of all ranks, from the senator of justice to the lowest tradesman, mingled together, in their shirts, and following the balls with utmost eagerness.
Tobias Smollett
#35. Yes, there were good memories, too, thirty-seven years of good and bad. Quarrels and reconciliations. Eight cradles and too many gravestones and Rosamund Clifford and power that rivalled Caesar's, an empire that stretched from the Scots border to the Mediterranean Sea.
Sharon Kay Penman
#36. It was some time ago - in the twelfth century, as you humani measure time - a man from the land of the Scots. I do not remember his name." Both Sophie and Josh instinctively knew that Hekate was lying. "What happened to him?" Sophie asked. "He died." There was a peculiar high-pitched giggle.
Michael Scott
#37. There is something so quiet and so industrious, something so Viking about the Scots.
Joanna Lumley
#38. And so the Scots grew restless, moaning all the time as only they could.
A.J. Hartley
#40. What happened in the United changing room has happened to me 50 times in my career. I have kicked bottles of mineral water, bags and shoes but I never hit a player. It's a question of technique, and the Scots must have a better technique.
Marcello Lippi
#41. The Scots (originally Irish, but by now Scotch) were at this time inhabiting Ireland, having driven the Irish (Picts) out of Scotland; while the Picts (originally Scots) were now Irish (living in brackets) and vice versa. It is essential to keep these distinctions clearly in mind (and verce visa).
W.C. Sellar
#42. The Scots will do anything to beat the English or just to see them lose, but I've never bought into that really.
Gerard Butler
#43. There's something weird about the Scots. We are a troubled, slightly tortured race - the sense of the respectable outward character and, inside, the turmoil of something darker.
Philip Kerr
#44. It's very important for cities all around the world to reinvent themselves, and Glasgow is a good example of that. The Scots are very nice. I don't think they are burdened by their history.
Zaha Hadid
#45. I did work a lot in Scots theatre, but I was never really successful in Scottish film or TV until I went down to London - and I had to go to the U.S. to get my big break.
Henry Ian Cusick
#46. In sport, as in science, business, and diplomacy, as Scots we understand that we benefit from the deep and diverse partnerships that make up the United Kingdom.
Douglas Alexander
#47. 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
#48. Why are Scots so attracted to the secret world? Smiley wondered, not for the first time in his career. Ships' engineers, Colonial administrators, spies. . . . Their heretical Scottish history drew them to distant churches, he decided. "George!
John Le Carre
#49. I think Shakespeare is like a dialect. If I heard a broad Scots accent, I'd probably struggle at first but then I'd start to look for words I recognise and I'd get the gist. I think Shakespeare is like that.
Ralph Fiennes
#50. I am not yet of Percy's mind, the Hotspur of the North; he that kills me some six or seven dozen of Scots as a breakfast, washes his hands, and says to his wife, 'Fie upon this quiet life! I want work.
William Shakespeare
#51. Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled, Scots, wham Bruce has aften led, Welcome to your gory bed, Or to victory! Now 's the day and now 's the hour; See the front o' battle lour.
Robert Burns
#52. It was funny on '24' because I'm a Scots-Canadian, and I was working with the great Scottish actor Tony Curran, and we were both playing Russian gangsters.
Callum Keith Rennie
#53. Most of the first voluntary Irish immigrants came from Ulster in the north of Ireland. These immigrants were generally, although not exclusively, Protestants. They were known as "Scotch-Irish" or "Scots Irish,
Ryan Hackney
#54. Like millions of Scots, I've agonised over whether to go for independence or remain with the Union.
Rory Bremner
#55. The working classes in England were always sentimental, and the Irish and Scots and Welsh. The upper-class English are the stiff-upper-lipped ones. And the middle class. They're the ones who are crippled emotionally because they can't move up, and they're desperate not to move down.
Tracey Ullman
#56. You [Scots] come of a race of men the very wind of whose name has swept to the ultimate seas.
James M. Barrie
#57. It with an E. We had recitations this afternoon. I just wish you could have been there to hear me recite 'Mary, Queen of Scots.' I just put my whole soul into it. Ruby Gillis told me coming home that the way I said the line, 'Now for my
L.M. Montgomery
#58. Golf: A plague invented by the Calvinistic Scots as a punishment for man's sins.
James Barrett Reston
#59. King Henry wants lands an'titles, like all the English."
"What do Scots want?" she asked, glancing over her shoulder. Darrow was far more sure footed than she was.
"A good woman, a warm bed, and food in their bellies." He grinned at her and she couldn't help but laugh.
Selena Kitt
#60. The Danes don't take themselves seriously at all and look for the joke in everything. Us Scots are on the same line of latitude and have the same amount of light, which may be why we have a similar sense of humour.
Jamie Sives
#61. The archetypal dwelling of the American frontier, the log cabin, was in fact a Scots development, if not invention. The word itself, cabine, meant any sort of rude enclosure or hut, made of stone and dirt in Scotland, or sod and mud in Ireland.
Arthur Herman
#62. He gave it the benefit of the doubt; he was Scotch.
("The Wendigo")
Algernon Blackwood
#63. 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
#64. Mary Queen of Scots is the most 'normal' girl who became a queen that I have ever written about.
Kathryn Lasky
#65. In the letters section, a Scot reminds his readers of the 'Glorious Alliance' between France and Mary Queen of Scots, which explains why Scotland should not share the rabid Europhobia of Englishmen.
Bruno Latour
#66. Scots are Jocks,WelshmenTaffies, and Irishmen Paddies or Micks but?it is noticeable there is no similar designation for the English.
Anna Pavlova
#67. For generations comedians have made jokes about Scots-Irish in the South inter-breeding. "I am my own grandpa" and all that stuff; you know, because they all were marrying their first cousins.
Ishmael Reed
#68. Scots have long memories, and they're not the most forgiving of people.
Diana Gabaldon
#69. Kidnapping is a national past time to these Scots and they do it for the sheer pleasure of making each other miserable.
Claire Robyns
#70. Look to your consciences and remember that the theatre of the world is wider than the realm of England.
Mary, Queen Of Scots
#71. One cannot imagine Scots music and song without the contribution of Burns.
Len G. Murray
#72. The lively oral storytelling scene in Scots and Gaelic spills over into the majority English-speaking culture, imbuing it with a strong sense of narrative drive that is essential to the modern novel, screenplay and even non-fiction.
Sara Sheridan
#73. I've heard there are modern Scots clamoring for independence even in the twenty-first century. They even have their own parliament now - although to me that's kind of like Texas having its own president.
N. Gemini Sasson
#74. Most Scots might be able to identify six vegetables - but only two MSPs. There are parts of Scotland where you rarely get more than 40% turnout at the polls. There's a big disconnect there, and I think comedians bridge that gap.
Rory Bremner
#75. I've never played Scots or got the chance to do my Scottish accent. I'm always trying it out in auditions, but they always say no. I'd love to act in a Scottish accent for once.
Callum Keith Rennie
#76. I fear the prayers of John Knox more than all the assembled armies of Europe
Mary, Queen Of Scots
#77. After Mary Queen of Scots, I turned to the farthest subject possible: Cromwell.
Antonia Fraser
#78. It was not, as some suggest, Calvinism that made Scots hard: it was Scottish character that made Calvinism, already congenial to the national spirit, even more rock-ribbed than its Genevan counterpart.
James G. Leyburn
#79. If aw his hums and haws were hams and haggises, the country wad be weel fed!
Liz Lochhead
#80. Rue not my death. Rejoice at my repose, It was no death to me but to my woes. The bud was opened to let out the rose. The chain was loosed to let the captive go." - ROBERT SOUTHWELL ON MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS
J.T. Ellison
#81. We can have enhanced devolution - greater powers in Scotland - but within the strength, security and stability of the United Kingdom, and I think that's what most Scots want.
Douglas Alexander
#82. Sidheag could be quite crass, the result of having been raised by men, or Scots, or soldiers, or werewolves, or all four.
Gail Carriger
#83. If you are a Scot living outside of Scotland but still in the UK, you are not allowed to vote in the referendum. This leaves over a million of loyal, proud Scots disenfranchised. It gives me the rage.
Damian Barr
#84. One of my greatest sadnesses at the prospective break-up of the Union is that it will set English, Welsh and Northern Irish against Scots in a bitter division of the debts and resources of the whole of the U.K.
Rory Bremner
#85. For Virgin Galactic's customers, it is transportation to the most amazing experience of their lives. I very much look forward to sending some Scots into space.
David Mackay
#86. A lot of Scots have settled in Canada over the years and it's a very easy place for Scots - they understand us, we understand them.
Robert Carlyle
#87. If I could be anything in the world I would want to be a teardrop because I would be born in your eyes, live on your cheeks, and die on your lips.
Mary, Queen Of Scots
#88. Nationality is a very curious thing. The blood is Scots and the temperament is Scots, but I am, in fact, 100% American.
Alexander Mackendrick
#89. To be kind to all, to like many and love a few, to be needed and wanted by those we love, is certainly the nearest we can come to happiness.
Mary, Queen Of Scots
#91. It is a great comfort to a rambling people to know that somewhere there is a permanent home
perhaps it is the most final of the comforts they ever really know.
Ben Robertson
#92. As Scots, we certainly want change today, but the change the Nationalists offer is not the change we want or need.
Douglas Alexander
#93. You have not yet discovered what happens to Russians at sea.'
'The same thing, I suppose, that happens to Englishmen,' Chancellor said. 'Scots, I take it, are immune.'
'To sarcasm, yes,' Lymond said.
Dorothy Dunnett
#94. My ancestors are Highland Scots, and my father's home in north Alabama is so much like northwest Arkansas. I have the same allergies in both places.
Ellen Gilchrist