Discover lines from Robert Burns, Scottish writer.
by Esther Lombardi
Updated August 06, 2017
Recognized as one of the greatest Scottish writers of all time, Robert Burns had a great deal to say. He was born in 1759 and is perhaps the most well-known Scots language poet. However much of his poetry was also written in English, which often included the bluntest of his harsh political commentary. His English writing often included Scottish dialects. He was a charismatic pioneer of the Romantics literary movement.
His most famous work is "Auld Lang Syne" which is sung in many countries at the stroke of Midnight on New Year's Eve to help usher in the new year. Burns claims to have transcribed the folk song from an old man who'd had the song passed on to him.
Here are a few quotes from Robert Burns.
"Affliction's sons are brothers in distress; A brother to relieve, how exquisite the bliss!" - Robert Burns
"Ah, gentle dames! it gars we greet, To think how mony consels sweet, How mony lengthened, sage advices, The husband frae the wife despises." - Robert Burns
"And may you better reck the rede, than ever did th' adviser." - Robert Burns
"And there begins a lang digression about the lords o' the creation." - Robert Burns
"Dare to be honest and fear no labor." - Robert Burns
"Firmness in enduring and exertion is a character I always wish to possess. I have always despised the whining yelp of complaint and cowardly resolve." - Robert Burns
"His locked, lettered, braw brass collar, Shewed him the gentleman and scholar." - Robert Burns
"Liberty's in every blow! Let us do or die." - Robert Burns
"Man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn!" - Robert Burns
"Nae man can tether time or tide." - Robert Burns
"Nursing her wrath to keep it warm." - Robert Burns
"Prudent, cautious self-control is wisdom's root." - Robert Burns
"Suspense is worse than disappointment." - Robert Burns
"The daisy's for simplicity and unaffected air." - Robert Burns
"The snowdrop and primrose our woodlands adorn, and violets bathe in the wet o' the morn." - Robert Burns
"The wide world is all before us - but a world without a friend." - Robert Burns
"There is no such uncertainty as a sure thing." - Robert Burns
"To liken them to your auld- warld squad, I must needs say comparisons are odd." - Robert Burns
"While Europe's eye is fix'd on mighty things, The fate of empires and the fall of kings; While quacks of State must each produce his plan, And even children lisp the Rights of Man; Amid this mighty fuss just let me mention, The Rights of Woman merit some attention." - Robert Burns
The boxer wasn’t known as the Louisville Lip for nothing. Following his death in the US on Friday, here are Ali’s sharpest verbal jabs and most withering putdowns
Muhammad Ali - referred to by some as the Louisville Lip - had a way with words that few sports personalities have come close to rivalling.
Journalists over the decades have faced an uphill battle trying to out-word the boxer, given that he usually did a far better job of describing himself or his opponents than they could.
Selecting the best quotes from the millions of words Ali uttered at lightning speed during his career is a challenge, but here are some of the best known, along with a few that are less well remembered.
On boxing
I’m not the greatest. I’m the double greatest. Not only do I knock ‘em out, I pick the round. I’m the boldest, the prettiest, the most superior, most scientific, most skillfullest fighter in the ring today.”
It’s hard to be humble when you’re as great as I am.”
He even penned a poem before taking on Sonny Liston in 1964:
...now Clay swings with a right, what a beautiful swing
And raises the bear straight out of the ring;
Liston is rising and the ref wears a frown
For he can’t start counting ‘til Liston comes down;
Now Liston disappears from view, the crowd is getting frantic
But our radar stations have picked him up somewhere over the Atlantic;
Who would have thought when they came to the fight
That they’d witness the launching of a human satellite?
Yes the crowd did not dream when they laid down their money
That they would see a total eclipse of the Sonny.”
When I’m gone, boxing will be nothing again. The fans with the cigars and the hats turned down’ll be there, but no more housewives and little men in the street and foreign presidents. It’s goin’ to be back to the fighter who comes to town, smells a flower, visits a hospital, blows a horn and says he’s in shape. Old hat. I was the onliest boxer in history people asked questions like a senator.”
Sometimes there was even a touch of humility:
There are no pleasures in a fight, but some of my fights have been a pleasure to win.”
The Rumble in the Jungle, 1974
Float like a butterfly sting like a bee – his hands can’t hit what his eyes can’t see.”
And in an equally famous boast:
I done something new for this fight. I wrestled with an alligator. I tussled with a whale. I handcuffed lightning, I thrown thunder in jail. Only last week I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalised a brick. I’m so mean I make medicine sick.”
Champions aren’t made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them: a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.”
I’m so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and got into bed before the room was dark.”
The Thrilla in Manilla, 1975
I saw your wife. You’re not as dumb as you look.”
Better remembered, perhaps, is this line:
It will be a killer and a chiller and a thriller, when I get the gorilla in Manila.”
Draft dodging
Ali also strayed into the political arena after refusing to serve in the US army during the Vietnam war. His explanation?
I ain’t got no quarrel with them Vietcong”
Of the US government’s attempts to jail him for draft-dodging, he said:
They did what they thought was right, and I did what I thought was right.”
And after being convicted of draft-dodging in 1970, in one of his most famous lines, he said:
I am America. I am the part you won’t recognise. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky, my name not yours. My religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me.”
Race
Many of his comments referred explicitly to race and the treatment of black people in the US:
I know I got it made while the masses of black people are catchin’ hell, but as long as they ain’t free, I ain’t free.”
Boxing is a lot of white men watching two black men beat each other up.”
I may not talk perfect white talk-type English, but I give you wisdom.”
Name change, 1964
Cassius Clay is a slave name. I didn’t choose it and I don’t want it. I amMuhammad Ali, a free name – it means beloved of God, and I insist people use it when people speak to me and of me.”
Later in life
He maintained his sharp tongue despite the toll that boxing had taken on his body:
People say I talk so slow today. That’s no surprise. I calculated I’ve taken 29,000 punches. But I earned $57m and I saved half of it. So I took a few hard knocks. Do you know how many black men are killed every year by guns and knives without a penny to their names? I may talk slow, but my mind is OK.”
What I suffered physically was worth what I’ve accomplished in life. A man who is not courageous enough to take risks will never accomplish anything in life.”
A man who views the world the same at 50 as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.”
Last words
I’m not afraid of dying. I have faith; I do everything I can to live my life right; and I believe that dying will bring me closer to God.”
Live every day like it’s your last, because someday you’re going to be right.”
'Tis so much joy! 'Tis so much joy! If I should fail, what poverty! And yet, as poor as I Have ventured all upon a throw; Have gained! Yes! Hesitated so this side the victory!
