Calgacus (Galgacus)
(?-?): Leader of Caledonian Confederation (1st century)
They
make a desert and call it peace.
(First
recorded Scot – speech attributed to him by the Roman writer Tacitus
before the Battle of Mons Graupius 84AD)
David
Cameron: English Politician
It
would be wrong to suggest that Scotland could not be another successful,
independent country.
(On the
example of small nations like Finland and Norway – April 2007)
Myles
Campbell (Maoilios M Caimbeul):
Poet and Teacher
Aile a
gheallas Errach
Ged a tha e fuar fhathast
Tha spiorad uaine san aire
Aig talamh is daoin’.
A promise of Spring in the air
Although it is still cold
People and earth
Are aware of a green spirit.
(Latha
Faoiltich, from Balitean 1987)
Sir
Walter Menzies Campbell:
Politician
Drive less,
fly less and buy less.
(The three
things he does to safe-guard the planet’s resources)
Sir
Henry Campbell-Bannerman (1836-1908):
Prime Minister
Even good
government can never be a substitute for government by the people
themselves.
(Speech in his
Stirling Constituency 1905)
Robert Carlyle:
Actor
The Stone
is about being pro-Scottish. It’s not about moaning, complaining or
crying about the fact that Edward stole the Stone a few hundred years
ago [1296]. It’s more about what it means to the Scottish psyche.
(On his new
film ‘Stone of Destiny’ – Scotland on Sunday 8 June 2008)
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881): Writer and Sage
No
great man lives in vain. The history of the world is but the
biography of great men.
(Heroes
and Hero-Worship, i. The Hero as Divinity 1840)
The
true University of these days is a Collection of Books.
(On Heroes,
Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History 1841)
The character of Burns is a
theme that cannot easily become either trite or exhausted.
(1854)
It is
noteworthy that the nobles of the country (Scotland) have maintained a
quite despicable behaviour since the days of Wallace downwards – a
selfish, ferocious, famishing, unprincipaled set of hyenas, from whom at
no time, and in no way, has the country derived any benefit whatever.
For
one man that can stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will
stand adversity.
The
greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none.
Vain
hope to make men happy by politics!
War is
a quarrel between two thieves too cowardly to fight their own
battle.
Work
is the grand cure of all maladies and miseries that ever beset
mankind.
(Rectorial
Address at Edinburgh University 1866)
Talk that
does not end in any kind of action is better suppressed altogether.
I do not
believe in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.
Make yourself an honest man and then you may be sure there is one less
rascal in the world.
A country
[Scotland] where the entire people is, or even once has been, laid hold
of, filled to the heart with an infinite religious idea, has ‘made a
step from which it cannot retrograde’. Thought, conscience, the sense
that man is denizen of a Universe, creature of an Eternity, has
penetrated to the remotest cottage, to the simplest heart.
Andrew
Carnegie (1835-1919): Industrialist and Philanthropist
In bestowing charity, the main
consideration should be to help those who help themselves; to
provide part of the means by which those who desire to improve may
do so.
I
well remember that the stern doctrines of Calvinism lay as a
terrible nightmare upon me… I grew up treasuring within me the
fact that my father had risen and left the Presbyterian Church
[in Dunfermline] one day when the minister preached the doctrine
of infant damnation. This was shortly after I had made my first
appearance.
(Autobiography)
Surplus
wealth is a sacred trust which its possessor is bound to administer in
his lifetime for the good of the community.
(The Gospel of Wealth, North American Review 1889)
America
would have been a poor show had it not been for the Scots.
No man
can become rich without himself enriching others.
J.R.
(Johnny) Cash (1932-2003): American Singer and Songwriter
I enjoy
writing a simple love ballad or a simple song. I just wrote a Scottish
folk song called “A Croft in Clachan”, and it’s just a simple story set
in the seventeenth century about this boy leaving the town of Clachan to
fight the English and then coming back home to the girl he’s going to
marry. When I was writing it, Paul McCartney was talking about “Mull of
Kintyre” and he said, “You should finish it. ‘Mull of Kintyre’ was the
biggest song I ever wrote.” That’s something to think about! A Scottish
song was the biggest song he wrote! So I finished it.
(Interview
with Steve Turner, Brighton England 1988)
Flagnote:
The great American singer and songwriter Johnny Cash was proud to trace his
family roots back to Strathmiglo in Fife. In 1677 his forebear William Cash
sailed from Glasgow aboard the Good Intent and settled in Essex County,
Massachusetts. Subsequent generations of the Cash family moved south to
Virgina, further south to Georgia, and eventually inland to Arkansas where
J’R: Cash was born at Kingsland in 1932.
John
Chamberlayne (1668/9-1723):
English Translator and Literary Editor
The diet
of the Scots is agreeable to their estates and qualities. No people eat
better, or have greater varieties of flesh, fish, wild and tame fowl,
than the Scots nobility and gentry in their own country, where they can
furnish their tables with ten dishes cheaper than the English can
provide three of the same kinds; and of their wines, the French
themselves did not before the Union drink better, and at very easy
rates. The tradesmen, farmers and common people are not excessive
devourers of flesh, as men of the same rank are in England. Milk-meats
and oatmeal, several ways prepared, and kale and roots dressed in
several manners, is the constant diet of the poor people (for roast-meat
is seldom had but on gaudy-days); and with this kind of food they enjoy
a better state of health than their more southern neighbours, who fare
higher.
Magnae
Britanniae Notitie: Or the Present State of Great-Britain With divers
Remarks 1718)
Robert
Chambers (1802-1871): Author, Bookseller and Publisher
Yule’s
come and Yule’s gone,
And we hae feasted weel;
Sae Jock maun to his flail again,
And Jenny to her wheel.
(The Book of Day)
Gilbert
Keith Chesterton (1874-1936): English Writer
For
Scotland has a double dose of the poison called heredity; the sense
of blood in the aristocrat, and the sense of doom in the Calvinist.
(The Innocence of Father Brown 1911)
Sir
Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (1874-1965): English Prime Minister
and Author
… as
to the future, we have to secure for Scotland a much more direct and
convenient method of bringing her influence to bear upon her own
purely domestic affairs. There is nothing which conflicts with the
integrity of the United Kingdom in the setting up of a Scottish
Parliament for the discharge of Scottish business. There is nothing
which conflicts with the integrity of the United Kingdom in securing
to Scotsmen in that or in some other way an effective means of
shaping the special legislation which affects them and only them.
Certainly I am of opinion that if such a scheme can be brought into
existence it will mean a great enrichment not only of the national
life of Scotland, but of the politics and public life of the United
Kingdom.
(Speech
given in Dundee 3 October 1911)
I have
never before been made a freeman of any city, and though since the war I
have been complimented by a number of invitations which I greatly value,
your freedom is the only one I have felt so far able to receive in the
hard press of events.
It
seemed to me that Edinburgh, the ancient capital of Scotland, enshrined
in the affection of the Scottish race all over the world, rich in
memories and tradition, immortal in its collective personality, stands
by itself and therefore I am here today to be refreshed by your great
kindness and inspiration.
(Speech on
receiving the Freedom of Edinburgh 12 October 1942)
Hilary
Rodham Clinton: American Politician: US Senator
On this
day, we recognise the outstanding achievements and contributions made by
Americans of Scottish descent who have played a prominent role in the
founding of this country, and throughout our history, and who have
helped foster a strong relationship between the US and Scotland.
(April
2008)
Anthony
Robert (Robbie) Coltrane:
Actor
I am
not sure how helpful nationalism is. I think it’s like religion.
It’s a double-edged sword. It causes as much misery as pleasure.
Saint Columba, Colum Cille (521-597):
Irish Prince of the northern Ui-Neill: Missionary
Small
and mean though this place is, great and special honour will be
conferred upon it.
(of Iona)
Dear Lord
Be
Thou a bright flame before me
Be Thou a guiding star above me
Be Thou a smooth path beneath me
Be Thou a kindly shepherd behind me
Today and for evermore.
Amen
(A Prayer of
St Columba)
John
Cleveland (1613-1658): English Poet, College Tutor and Royalist
Had
Cain been Scot, God would have chang’d his doom,
Not forced him wander but confined him home.
Samuel
Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834): English Poet, Critic and Philosopher
… of the
overseers of the slave plantations in the West Indies, three of four are
Scotsmen, and the fourth is generally observed to have suspicious cheek
bones: and on the American Continent the … Whippers-in or Neger-Bishops
are either Scotchmen or the Americanised Descendants of Scotchmen.
Sir
Sean Connery: International Film Star
The
lyres of time sang softly,
I cared not how I fared,
For free with the strength of ignorance,
How could I have been impaired?
My armour bright and virile
Entombed a passionate heart,
That nurtured dreams of fire,
But to where, to where to start.
(1951)
Over the
centuries the Scots have accepted the fact of English domination. You’ve
only got to look at the figures to realise Scotland is a perpetually
depressed area. Why else do the Scots have to leave Scotland to make a
good living?
With so
many Scots in the Cabinet I would have thought that the government would
have understood what “It’s no’ fair” means. Obviously not! In the
political parties bill rushed through the Commons, someone in my
position is to be treated as a foreigner. Well I am not a foreigner but
a proud Scot. I cannot see that I have been doing anything wrong in
donating some funds to the National Party. All I have ever wanted is to
see my country of Scotland treated equally with all of the other nations
of the world. There is nothing mysterious about my support for the SNP.
I have always been totally open about my donations. No one could
seriously argue that I have ever secured any advantage from it. Quite
the contrary, I know that my support for the National Party has upset
powerful people. The fact that legislation designed to clean up Tory and
Labour politics has ended up as a bill to clear out Sean Connery strikes
me as more than a little suspicious.
(December
2000)
What you are doing is a marvellous
thing and just to let you know I am backing you all the way.
(text-message of support to David R
Ross on his successful Walk for Wallace, August 2005)
We
don’t have a bridge between America and Scotland that Ireland has
with America, and that’s a real drawback.
Like a
lot of Scots abroad I look forward to coming home to an independent
Scotland. Emotionally, of course, I have never left.
(April
2007)
I’ve
always been hopeful about Scotland’s prospects. And I now believe more
than ever that Scotland is within touching distance of independence and
equality. The first step towards this was winning Scotland the right to
a separate parliament in 1997 and the second was electing an SNP
Government last year. I believe we have what it takes to take the third
step, and I am convinced it will happen in my lifetime.
(Scottish
Sunday Express 24 February 2008)
Scotland should always be a stand-alone nation at whatever, I believe.
(Launch of
his autobiography Being a Scot at Edinburgh International Festival on his 78th
birthday 25 August 2008)
My
three great passions in life, apart of course from Micheline, my
wife since 1970, are acting, sport (especially golf) and Scotland.
Of the three I would put Scotland and Scottish politics first.
(Being A
Scot 2008)
My
first big break came when I was five years old. It’s taken me more
than seventy years to realise that. You see, at five I first learnt
to read. It’s that simple and it’s that profound. I left school at
thirteen. I didn’t have a formal education. And yet there I was,
accepting the thirty-fourth American Film Institute’s Life
Achievement Award in the summer of 2006. I told the glittering
Hollywood audience that without the lust for reading instilled in me
all those years ago by my teachers at the Bruntsfield Primary School
in Edinburgh, I would not have been there with them that night. It
had been a long journey to that star-studded event, from my two-room
Fountainbridge home in the smoky industrial end of Edinburgh near
McCowans’ toffee factory.
(Being A
Scot 2008)
How can
we explain the enigma of the Highland bagpipe? How is it that such a
simple instrument, one that is so primitive that it can be varied
neither in pitch nor in volume, can express so many emotions? It can
convey rapture at weddings, inspire soldiers to feats of courage in the
height of battle, or help assuage inconsolable grief around the graves
of loved ones. When New York marked the anniversary of the 9/11
catastrophe, five pipe bands of firemen expressed the rage and grief of
the many relatives and friends at Ground Zero, lamenting the senseless
deaths of near three thousand who perished there. And to think it took
the primitive Highland bagpipe to console the citizens of one of the
world’s most sophisticated cities.
(Being A Scot 2008)
William
(Billy) Connolly:
Comedian, Musician, Presenter and Actor
Now I
don’t know if you remember the first time you ever tasted whisky and the
tremendous shock to the nervous system that is. In Scotland this usually
happens around the age of four – not because your parents give it to you
but because there are these parties at New Year.
(Gullible’s
Travels 1982)
The
rituals of drink have always fascinated me. The way curry has become a
sort of traditional Scottish food after a night of drinking.
(Gullible’s
Travels 1982)
There
is no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing.
Growing
old is great. It’s like getting drunk. Everyone around you gets
better-looking.
(July 2008)
Alistair Cooke (1908-2004): English-born American Broadcaster, Author and
Journalist
Only
the Scots would have thought of celebrating a national game [golf] with
the figure of a tortured saint.
(Commenting
on the Royal & Ancient emblem depicting St Andrew bearing the Saltire cross
on which he was crucified)
Joseph
(Joe) Corrie (1894-1968): Playwright, Poet, Journalist and Short Story
Writer
Crawlin’
aboot like a snail in the mud,
Covered wi’ clammie blae,
Me, made after the image o’ God –
Jings! But it’s laughable tae.
(The Image O’ God 1927)
We have
borne good sons to broken men,
Nurtured them on our hungry breat,
And given them to our masters when
Their day of life was at its best.
We have
dried their clammy clothes by the fire,
Solaced them, cheered them, tended them well,
Watched the wheels raising them from the mire,
Watched the wheels lowering them to hell.
(Miners’
Wives)
There’s
nae power on earth can crush the men that can sing…
David
Coulthard: Racing Driver
As far
as I'm concerned, it’s a question of genetics. You buy little boys a
tractor to play with and little girls a doll. Try it the other way and
it just doesn’t work.
Professor
Edward (Ted) J Cowan: Historian, Professor of Scottish History at Glasgow
University and Author
This [The
Declaration of Scottish Independence 6 April 1320] is the first
articulation of the idea that a king is elected by his subjects and if
he steps out of line he can be deposed by them. It appeals to universal
values. It appeals to the freedom and dignity of the individual but it
also appeals to the freedom and dignity of the nation.
(Backing moves
to gain Arbroath Abbey World Heritage Status 9 February 2008)
Professor
Robert Crawford: Poet, Critic, Author and Professor of Modern Scottish
Literature, University of St Andrews
No
writer is more charismatic than Robert Burns. Passionate, intelligent,
and a consummate wordsmith, he is the world’s most popular love bard.
Though it was dangerous to be so in his age and place, he also made
himself through tone and temperament the master poet of democracy. All
this makes Burns one of the most important authors of modernity, but
also one of the hardest to write about. He will not be pigeon holed. His
life and work resist the imposition of grandeur.
(The Bard,
Introduction 2009)
People
often pat Burns on the head as a ‘heaven-taught ploughman’, assuming he
was an unlearned character. But if I was to say to my students, ‘Hands
up which of you have read a major work of philosophy published in the
year of your birth’ I wonder how many would be able to do so. Yet Burns
read Adam Smith’s ‘Theory of Moral Sentiments’, published in 1759, and
he knows it well because he refers to it several times. “O wad some
Pow’r the giftie gie us/To see oursels as others see us” – that’s just a
straight versification of something in Adam Smith.
(The
Scotsman 17 January 2009)
Samuel Rutherford Crockett (1859-1914): Novelist
Here he
[Andra] scurried and scuttled for all the world like a dipper, with his
breast showing white like that of the bird, as he walked along the
bottom of the pool. Most of the time his head was beneath the water, as
well as the rest of his body. His arms bored their way round the
intricacies of the boulders at the bottom. His brown and freckled hands
pursued the trouts beneath the banks. Sometimes he would have one in
either hand at the same time.
When he
caught them he had a careless and reckless way of tossing them up on the
bank without looking where he was throwing.
(The Lilac Sunbonnet, ‘Legitimate Sport’ 1894
Where
about the graves of the martyrs
the whaups are crying
My heart
remembers how.
(Dedication of ‘The Stickit Minister’ to Robert Louis Stevenson)
Helen Burness Cruikshank
(1886-1975): Poet, Political Activist and Civil Servant
To bring back
colour, mirth to
Dreary streets;
To set the folk advancing in the glens
With light foot-beats…
We will not rest, till Scotland rings again
With her children’s songs.
(Lines for Wendy Wood’s
Scottish Watch)
I mind o’ the Ponnage Pule,
The reid brae risin’,
Morphie Lade,
An’ the saumon that louped the dam,
A tree i’ Martin’s Den
Wi’ names carved on it;
But I ken na wha I am.
(The Ponnage Pool)
Robert
Bontine Cunninghame Graham,
‘Don Roberto’ (1852-1936): Scholar, Politician and
Writer
I regret, as a Scotsman, because we
have always had a good name for business, that those Judases who sold
our country [in 1707], got so little for themselves. £26,000! Why, their
patron saint, Judas, got almost as much, taking into consideration the
greater purchasing power of money when he did his deal.
(Speech at Bannockburn Rally,
Stirling, 18 June 1927)
The problem for Scotland is not
the English who are a great and wise people. The problem for
Scotland are those Scots born without imagination.
(Speech at Bannockburn 21 June
1930)
I cannot
bear to see Scottish writers take their inspiration from English themes.
I cannot bear to see our painters paint entirely English subjects. Have
they no themes in Scotland; are there no tragedies in the slums of
Glasgow, in the mining districts of Lanarkshire and in the Western
Islands for men to write about; have our hills and straths lost their
enchancement for painters? I say ‘No’; but I do say that we want an
increase of national sentiment in order to direct the attention of our
artists and painters and poets more exclusively to the consideration of
national subjects.
( Speech at Bannockburn 21 June 1930)
I never
withdraw.
(Frequent
comment during his time in the English House of Commons 1886-1892)
David
Daiches (1912-2005): Academic and Writer
The proper drinking of Scotch
whisky is more than indulgence: it is a toast to civilization, 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.
(Scotch Whisky 1969)
George
Elder Davie (1912-2007):
Philosopher, Lecturer and Author
It
may be argued, moreover, that under post-Union conditions, it was the
secular component rather than the sacred which was chiefly responsible
for the continuing foreignness of the Scottish ethos. After all, the
egalitarianism of the Presbyterians always made a certain appeal over
the border, although to be sure it was un-English in an official sense.
On the other hand, the ratiocinative approach of Parliament House,
looking as it did to Roman and Continental law, was out of line with the
inherited English practice; and still more alien and uncongenial was an
educational system which, combining the democracy of the Kirk elders
with the intellectualism of the advocates, made expertise in metaphysics
the condition of the open door of social advancement. Thus the barrier
between north and south was proverbially located in the contrast between
rationality and rule of thumb, between principle and precedent, and the
English with their tolerant good humour could refer to the complex
sister nation as ‘metaphysical Scotland’.
(The
Democratic Intellect 1961)
In the
beginning, there were these ambitious plans for promoting a spectacular
educational programmes for Scotland, for building up a new learned class
of specialists around the Universities, and for consolidating
Edinburgh’s historic role as the cultural capital of an education-minded
country; but, in the end, after it was made clear that there was to be
no financial aid for these schemes, the proposed advance became a
deliberate retreat; the thistle motif gave way to that of the mountain
daisy, and the rampant lion turned into a wee, sleekit, cowering,
timorous beastie.
(The
Democratic Intellect 1961)
Daniel Defoe (born Daniel Foe) (1660-1731): English Writer, journalist
and Spy
The
Scots hate the Union, but they hate each other more.
The
Scots are as diligent, as industrious, as apt for Labour and
Business, and as capable of it, when they are abroad, as any People
in the World; and why should they not be so at Home? and, if they
had Encouragement no doubt they would.
Scotland has had many an ill picture drawn for her in the world; and as
she has been represented in False Draughts, no wonder the Injurys she
has suffered are intolerable. All the Spies sent hither have carry’d
back an ill Report of the Land, and fill’d the World with weak Banters
and Clamour as they know not what.
Professor
Richard Demarco: Artist and Arts Impresario
I thank
God for the Edinburgh Festival. It gives Edinburgh a sense of its true
destiny as a city worthy of comparison with all those Italian cities
that first gave meaning to the word ‘civilised’.
(1988)
The
Scots think of it as their capital; they’re too possessive, Edinburgh
belongs to the world.
Donald Dewar (1937-2000):
Politician, Inaugural First Minister of Scotland and Lawyer
For me, for any Scot, today
is a proud moment: a new stage on a journey begun long ago and which has no
end.
(Opening of Scottish
Parliament 1999)
There
shall be a Scottish Parliament. I like that.
(Quoting the
first words of the Scotland Act, in his speech at the Official Opening of
the Scottish Parliament July 1999)
This is
about more than our politics and our laws. This is about who we are, how
we carry ourselves.
(Opening of
Scottish Parliament 1 July 1999)
Benjamin
Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield (1804-1881):
English Politician, Conservative Prime Minister and Novelist
I never
perceived a better place than Edinburgh. It is exactly what I fancied
it, and certainly is the most beautiful town in the world.
Thomas
(Tommy) Henderson Docherty: Football Manager (including Scotland);
Scottish Internationalist
It was
a great victory, a fantastic result. But if you’re asking what was
Scotland’s greatest-ever victory, it has to be the 3-2 win at
Wembley in 1967 when Jim Baxter absolutely dominated the game.
England were the world champions then and were playing at home,
whereas France were playing away and are World Cup runners-up. Our
biggest problem now is getting carried away.
(Commenting on Scotland’s unexpected 1-0 victory against World Cup
runners-up France on 7 October 2006)
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930):
Doctor and Author
It has
long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the
most important.
John
Dryden (1631-1700): English Poet, Literary Critic and Playwright
Treacherous Scotland, to no interest true.
William Dunbar (c1460-c1520): Poet
All
love is lost but upon God alone.
(The Merle and the Nightingale c1508)
Douglas
Eaglesham Dunn:
Poet, Academic, Author and Critic
In a
country like this
Our ghosts outnumber us.
(from At
Falkland Palace 1988)
Kenneth
Dunn: Senior Curator of Manuscripts, National Library of Scotland
Burns’
tour of the country awakened his sense of national identity. Touring
those parts of the country that had been involved in the 1745 rebellion
excited his interest in the Jacobites. Through this interest we can see
that his tour unquestionably evoked in him an interest in Scotland’s
past.
(Discover –
the magazine of the National Library of Scotland – Winter Issue 2008)
General Dwight
David ‘Ike’ Eisenhower (1890-1969):
American Politician, Soldier, 34th President of the United States
of America
Cities
like Edinburgh, far from being mere structures of brick and stone, are
living symbols of mankind’s fundamental need of faith in co-operative
action.
(1946)
Jean
Elliot (1727-1805): Poet
At e’en,
in the gloaming, nae swankies are roaming
‘Bout stacks wi’ the lasses at bogle to play,
But ilk ane sits drearie, lamenting her dearie:
The Flowers of the Forest are a’ wede away.
Dule and
wae for the order sent our lads to the Border;
The English, for ance, by guile wan the day:
The Flowers of the Forest, that foucht aye the foremost,
The prime o’ our land are cauld in the clay.
(The Flowers of the Forest)
Ralph
Waldo Emerson (1803-1892):
American Essayist, Poet and Philosopher
His
(Robert Burns) muse and teaching was common sense, joyful, aggressive,
irrisistable. Not Latimer nor Luther struck more telling blows against
false theology than did this brave singer. The Confession of Augsburg,
the Declaration of Independence, the French Rights of Man, and the
Marseillaise, are not more weighty documents in the history of freedom
than the songs of Robert Burns. His satire has lost none of its edge.
His musical arrows yet sing through the air. He is so substantially a
reformer that I find his grand plain sense in close chain with the
greatest masters, - Rabelais, Shakespeare in comedy, Cervantes, Butler
and Burns, If I could add another name, I find it only in a living
country-man of Burns.
(Speech
delivered at the celebration of the Burns centenary, Boston, 25 January
1859)
Dr Gwynfor
Evans (1912-2005):
Welsh Politician, Lawyer and Market Gardener
Compared
with Wales, moreover, Scotland has some obvious advantages. There was a
Scottish state until 1707. The country has its own legal system, ancient
Universities which are thoroughly Scottish in character, its own
Established Church and five morning papers with wide circulations. The
country hasn’t suffered as much as Wales from immigration. It is further
away from London and it isn’t divided as Wales sometimes is, by language
issues. On the other hand there is no Scottish language strong enough to
link the people with their past and therefore no great national
literature in it, nor is its history as inspiring as that of Wales –
except, of course, to the Scots.
(For The Sake
Of Wales; The Memoirs of Gwynfor Evans – translated from Welsh by Meic
Stephens 1996)
Dr
Winifred
(Winnie) M Ewing: Politician and Lawyer
Stop the World - we want to get on.
Hamilton By-election 1967)
The Scottish Parliament adjourned on 25th March 1707,
is hereby reconvened.
(On the opening of the Scottish Parliament 12 May 1999
- as Mother of the House Dr Winifred M Ewing chaired the first session)
We must
push the Parliament to campaign for more powers and we must campaign for
those powers out in the country. The concept of fiscal autonomy is one
that is easy to understand and one which attracts widespread support
already. The control of our own resources is essential for we are the
only country to have discovered oil and still to have become no better
off. We also have vast supplies of the key resource of the twenty-first
century – water – whilst there is a scarcity of it elsewhere, including
England, and we have a huge ability to generate power by wind and other
methods. Far from coming to the end of our riches, we are just coming
into them.
(StopThe World – The Autobiography of Winnie Ewing 2004)
Please,
make sure you look outside Scotland. Be open to ideas from elsewhere.
Look at the smaller countries around you. Travel to them, look and
learn. Go to Ireland or Norway, or Sweden or Denmark. See how small
countries can manage their own affairs with success and dignity.
Experience the confidence, the optimism. Soak in the self-belief. And,
of course, get to know your own country as well. Get to know it and its
past. And work hard for what you believe in politically.
(Advice to
young Scots – The Scotsman 22 February 2007)
The very
name Culloden stands for sadness beyond words. It ended lives, hopes,
ambitions and a way of life,
(2007)
Sir
Nicholas Hardwick Fairbairn (1933-1995): Politician and Lawyer
My
two worst dreads were dancing-class and parties. Both caused me
acute embarrassment. Dancing was cissy, and I had to wear my kilt,
which was cissy too, although I have worn it with pleasure ever
since.
Before
the Reformation, colour and music and splendid robes were part of
the law of Scotland and Scottish court and church … until recent
times, the ministers of the Church of Scotland wore black and colour
was not to be seen in the kirks. Music was absent, except for the
stilted chant of the metrical psalms, and drink was, of course, a
demon of the Devil.
(The
Scotsman 24 May 1984)
Sir
Thomas (Tom) Farmer:
Businessman, Entrepreneur and Philanthropist
I am not a
member of the Scottish National Party, but I listened to the
presentation made to me by Alex Salmond and his SNP team and concluded
there should be a real open debate for the future of Scotland. This is
important as we come nearer to the May [2007] elections. I would
consider it would be an unhealthy situation if the SNP were not able to
actively campaign and participate in these debates. They should be on a
level financial playing field with other political parties.
(Announcing
£100,000 donation to the Scottish National Party – Sunday Times 8 October
2006)
Nobody
in the CBI or any other organisation is in a position to say
independence would be bad for Scotland. At the end of the day these
comments are an insult to Scots and Scotland as a nation.
(April
2007)
Alison Fell:
Poet and Novelist
Life is as
short as a shoelace, but who knows it.
(Significant
Fevers 1984)
Sir
Alexander (Alex) Ferguson:
Football Manager (East Stirlingshire, St Mirren, Aberdeen and Manchester United)
Preparing
youngsters for failure is easy; it’s preparing them for success that’s
really difficult.
Craig Ferguson:
Comedian and Broadcaster
I’m more
comfortable here in America than I was in England. America is a natural
place for a person from Scotland. Culturally, it didn’t feel like that
much of a leap for me. It just kind of works for me. But for better or
worse I’ll always be Scottish. Perhaps I would never have exceeded my
expectations if I had been born somewhere else.
(Scotland on
Sunday 3 February 2008)
Professor
Niall Ferguson: Historian and Author
Devolution gives Scots the illusion of self-government but not the
reality of it. The parliament cannot flourish while it acts as a
mere channel for aid from England. Independence would be preferable
to this half-way house.
(The
Scotsman 29 May 2006)
Alexander (Alex) Fergusson: Politician and Farmer
Let us
all remember that our electorate, the people of Scotland, want this new
politics to work for them and we have a duty to deliver what the
electorate expects.
(Acceptance
speech on being elected Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament 14 May
2007)
John
Duncan Fergusson (1874-1961): Painter
No-one
has a right to decide for others what is art and what isn’t. The public
has a right to decide for itself, and to like what is considered to be
bad art if they choose.
Robert
Fergusson (1750-1774): Poet
Black be the day that e're to
England's ground
Scotland was eikit by the UNION's bond...
(The Ghaists; A Kirk-yard
Eclogue)
For nought
can cheer the heart so weel.
As can a canty Highland reel.
At
glomin’, now, the bagpipe’s dumb,
When weary owsen homeward come;
Sae sweetly as it wont to bum,
An’ pibrachs screed;
We never hear its weirlike hum;
For Music’s dead.
Macgibbon’s gane: Ah! Waes my heart!
The man in music maist expert,
Wha’ cou’d sweet melody impart,
An’ tune the reed,
Wi’ sic a slee and pawky art;
But now he’s dead.
(Elegy on the Death of Scots Music)
When
merry Yule-day comes, I trow,
You’ll scantlins find a hungry mou;
Sma are pour cares, our stamacks fou
O gusty gear,
And kickshaws, strangers to our view
Sin fairn-year.
(The Daft Days)
Flagnote:
The Daft Days, the Twelve Days of Yule run from 24 December (Yule Een) to 6
January (Uphaliday).
Susan
Edmonstoune Ferrier (1782-1854):
Novelist
I….intend
to immortalise myself by giving to the world a work which shall be read
when reading is no more! A work whose fame shall extend from the
Taboozamanoo Islands to the last stone of the Mull of Kintyre.
(Letter to
Charlotte Clavering 1810)
Professor
Richard J Finlay: Historian and Author
The
Scottish National Party won its first parliamentary seat at Motherwell
[and Wishaw], in April 1945. The candidate, Robert McIntyre, managed to
push labour into second place, no doubt benefiting from Tory and Liberal
voters. McIntyre used his short spell in parliament to good effect, with
a number of interventions regarding social and health policy – he was a
well-known public-health specialist – and was offered a safe Labour seat
if he was prepared to switch sides. He refused. McIntyre also had the
distinction of raising the ire of Winston Churchill after his refusal to
accept sponsorship to take his seat in the Commons.
(Modern
Scotland 1914-2000, 2004)
Archie
Fisher: Folksinger, Songwriter and Broadcaster
For
I’ve sat and listened to my father tell
Of the days that he once knew
When you either sweated for a measly wage
Or you joined the parish queue.
And as times grew harder day by day
Along the riverside
I oftimes heard my mother say
‘It was tears that made the Clyde.’
(The
Shipyard Apprentice)
Julie
Fleeting: Teacher and Footballer
I’m
very proud. I love pulling on the national jersey, and I feel very
privileged to have had the opportunity to do that 100 times.
(On gaining
her 100th cap for Scotland 31 October 2007)
Andrew
Fletcher of Saltoun (1653-1716): The Patriot; Leading Opponent of 1707 Union
I knew a very wise man who believed
that if a man were permitted to make all the ballads, he need not care
who should make the laws of the nation.
The Scots deserve no pity, if they
voluntarily surrender their united and separate interests to the mercy
of a united parliament, where the English shall have so vast a majority.
(23 October 1706)
An
army is reckoned to belong to who pays it, so an army paid from
England would be called an English army.
Sir Alexander
Fleming (1881-1955): Biologist, Pharmacologist, Discoverer of Penicillin,
Nobel Prize of Medicine 1945
A good
gulp of whisky at bedtime – it’s not scientific but it helps.
(Cure for the
cold)
Benjamin
Franklin (1706-1790): American Philosopher, Politician and Scientist
Did not strong connections draw me elsewhere, I
believe Scotland would be the country I should choose to end my days.
James
A Froude (1818-1895): English Historian
No nation in Europe can look with
more just pride on their past than the Scots, and no young Scotchman
aught to grow up in ignorance of what that past has been.
Michael
Fry: Historian, Author, Broadcaster, Journalist and Political Activist
Scots
can only solve their problems once they rule themselves and take
responsibility for their actions as an independent nation.
(Sunday
Post 31 December 2006)
Robert Kerr (Ricki)
Fulton (1924-2004): Comedian and Actor
The day
I’m no longer funny is when I’ll give up.
Will Fyffe
(1885-1947):
Comedian and Music Hall Entertainer
When a man
takes a drink, he’s a man. When ye’re teetotal – Ach! When ye’re
teetotal ye’ve got a rotten feeling that everybody’s your boss.
