Walter Scott

Who was Walter Scott?

Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet, FRSE was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet.

Scott was the first English-language author to have a truly international career in his lifetime, with many contemporary readers in Europe, Australia, and North America. His novels and poetry are still read, and many of his works remain classics of both English-language literature and of Scottish literature. Famous titles include Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, The Lady of the Lake, Waverley, The Heart of Midlothian and The Bride of Lammermoor.

Although primarily remembered for his extensive literary works and his political engagement, Scott was an advocate, judge and legal administrator by profession, and throughout his career combined his writing and editing work with his daily occupation as Clerk of Session and Sheriff-Depute of Selkirkshire.

A prominent member of the Tory establishment in Edinburgh, Scott was an active member of the Highland Society and served a long term as President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Famous Quotes:

• One hour of life, crowded to the full with glorious action, and filled with noble risks, is worth whole years of those mean observances of paltry decorum, in which men steal through existence, like sluggish waters through a marsh, without either honor or observation.
• 'Twas Christmas broach'd the mightiest ale; 'twas Christmas told the merriest tale; a Christmas gambol oft could cheer the poor man's heart through half the year.
• Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,Who never to himself hath said,This is my own, my native land!Whose heart hath neer within him burnd,As home his footsteps he hath turnd,From wandering on a foreign strand!
• A rusty nail placed near a faithful compass, will sway it from the truth, and wreck the argosy.
• There never will exist anything permanently noble and excellent in the character which is a stranger to resolute self-denial.
• Adversity is, to me at least, a tonic and a bracer.
• Of all vices, drinking is the most incompatible with greatness.
• Breathes there the man with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land!
• Ambition breaks the ties of blood, and forgets the obligations of gratitude.
• Is death the last step? No, it is the final awakening.