Quotes on Scottish Character

Touch his head, and he will bargain and argue with you to the last;
Touch his heart, and he falls upon your breast.

Andrew Carnegie

The truth is that we are at bottom the most sentimental and emotional people on earth.

John Buchan

The proper drinking of Scotch whisky is more than indulgence; it is a toast to a civilisation, a tribute to the continuity of culture, a manifesto of man’s determination to use the resources of nature to refresh mind and body and enjoy to the full the senses with which he has been endowed.

David Daiches, Writer, in Scotch Whisky in 1969

Do try to sound the “r” although not with the exaggerated trill usually given to it by so-called Scots comedians. But, again this to my English readers, don’t even attempt to get the guttural sounds of “ach” and “loch”. You will only strangle yourselves. To say “ach!” correctly you need generations of Scots blood behind you and you must have been born with the peat-reek in your nostrils and the sight of the hills as the first thing ever you clapped your eyes on.

Ronald MacDonald Douglas (1989–1987), Writer – and Nationalist

Hard by, in the fields called the Leith Links, the citizens of Edinburgh divert themselves at a game called golf, in which they use a curious kind of bat, tipt with horn, and small elastic balls of leather, stuffed with feathers... 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 the utmost eagerness.

Tobias Smollet, 1771

LOVE OF SCOTLAND

I like to tell people when they ask “Are you a native born (American)?” “No sir, I am a Scotsman” and I feel as proud as I am sure every Roman did when it was their boast to say “I am a Roman citizen.”

Andrew Carnegie (1835–1918), Industrialist and Philanthropist

Did not strong connections draw me elsewhere, I believe Scotland would be the country I would choose to end my days in.

Benjamin Franklin

...I feel a sort of reverence in going over these scenes in this most beautiful country, which I am proud to call my own, where there was such devoted loyalty to the family of my ancestors – for Stuart blood is in my veins...

Queen Victoria’s journal entry in 1873

Assuredly we must cut our coat to suit our cloth – and the cloth is the tartan.

Wendy Wood (1892–1981), Scottish patriot and nationalist

Many a single county in Scotland has produced more men of original genius than tracts twice as large in the more favoured climates of Europe.

Norman Douglas