... though mathematics may teach a man how to build a bridge, it is what the Scotch Universities call the humanities, that teach h...im to be civil and sweet-tempered.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I've sometimes thought ... that the difference between us and the English is that the Scotch are hard in all other respects but so...ft with women, and the English are hard with women but soft in all other respects.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
At last, on Monday the 16th of May, when I was sitting in Mr. Davies's back-parlour, after having drunk tea with him and Mrs. Davi...es, Johnson unexpectedly came into the shop; and Mr. Davies having perceived him through the glass-door in the room in which we were sitting, advancing towards us,--he announced his aweful approach to me, somewhat in the manner of an actor in the part of Horatio, when he addresses Hamlet on the appearance of his father's ghost, "Look, my Lord, it comes" ... Mr. Davies mentioned my name, and respectfully introduced me to him. I was much agitated; and recollecting his prejudice against the Scotch, of which I had heard much, I said to Davies, "Don't tell where I come from."M"From Scotland," cried Davies roguishly. "Mr. Johnson, (said I) I do indeed come from Scotland, but I cannot help it." I am willing to flatter myself that I meant this as light pleasantry to sooth and conciliate him, and not as an humiliating abasement at the expense of my country.... [W]ith that quickness of wit for which he was so remarkable, he seized the expression "come from Scotland," which I used in the sense of being of that country, and, as if I had said that I had come away from it, or left it, retorted, "That, Sir, I find, is what a very great many of your countrymen cannot help."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Truth is used to vitalize a statement rather than devitalize it. Truth implies more than a simple statement of fact. "I don't have... any whisky," may be a fact but it is not a truth.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I'm a very smart guy. I haven't a feeling or a scruple in the world. All I have the itch for is money. I am so money greedy that f...or twenty-five bucks a day and expenses, mostly gasoline and whisky, I do my thinking myself, what there is of it; I risk my whole future, the hatred of the cops ... I dodge bullets and eat saps, and say thank you very much, if you have any more trouble, I hope you'll think of me, I'll just leave one of my cards in case anything comes up.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I see Canada as a country torn between a very northern, rather extraordinary, mystical spirit which it fears and its desire to pre...sent itself to the world as a Scotch banker.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Don't you drink? I notice you speak slightingly of the bottle. I have drunk since I was fifteen and few things have given me more ...pleasure. When you work hard all day with your head and know you must work again the next day what else can change your ideas and make them run on a different plane like whisky? When you are cold and wet what else can warm you? Before an attack who can say anything that gives you the momentary well-being that rum does?... The only time it isn't good for you is when you write or when you fight. You have to do that cold. But it always helps my shooting. Modern life, too, is often a mechanical oppression and liquor is the only mechanical relief.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I mourn the safe and motherly old middle-class queen, who held the nation warm under the fold of her big, hideous Scotch-plaid sha...wl and whose duration had been so extraordinarily convenient and beneficent. I felt her death much more than I should have expected; she was a sustaining symbol--and the wild waters are upon us now.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »