Robert Burns

Nae man can tether time or tide; The hour approachesTam maun ride; That hour, o'night's black arch the key-stane, That dreary hourTam mounts his beast in.

But little Mouse, you are not alone,_x000D_ In proving foresight may be vain: _x000D_ The best laid schemes of mice and men _x000D_ Go often askew, _x000D_ And leave us nothing but grief and pain, _x000D_ For promised joy! _x000D_ Still you are blest, compared with me!

The snowdrop and primrose our woodlands adorn, and violets bathe in the wet o' the morn.

I pick my favourite quotations and store them in my mind as ready armour, offensive or defensive, amid the struggle of this turbulent existence.

Dare to be honest and fear no labor.

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.

Not the bee upon the blossom, In the pride o' sunny noon; Not the little sporting fairy, All beneath the simmer moon; Not the poet, in the moment Fancy lightens in his e'e, Kens the pleasure, feels the rapture, That thy presence gi'es to me.

Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie, O, what a panic's in thy breastie!