Literary Birthday – 15 August – Walter Scott
Walter Scott was born 15 August 1771, and died 21 September 1832.
Walter Scott Quotes
- A lawyer without history or literature is a mechanic, a mere working mason; if he possesses some knowledge of these, he may venture to call himself an architect.
- All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
- O, what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive!
- 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 honour or observation.
- For success, attitude is equally as important as ability.
- There is a vulgar incredulity, which in historical matters, as well as in those of religion, finds it easier to doubt than to examine.
- Teach you children poetry; it opens the mind, lends grace to wisdom and makes the heroic virtues hereditary.
Walter Scott was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet. He was the first English-language author to have a truly international career in his lifetime. His works include Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, Marmion, and The Lady of the Lake. He is also known for his Waverley novels (1814–1831), beginning with Waverley, which were among the most popular and widely read novels in Europe. Scott was an advocate, judge and legal administrator by profession. His knowledge of history and literary facility equipped him to establish the historical novel genre in European Romanticism. Scott was also influenced by Gothic romance, and collaborated in 1801 with ‘Monk’ Lewis on Tales of Wonder. He wrote 27 novels altogether. In 1925 Scott’s manuscripts, letters and papers were donated to the National Library of Scotland by the Advocates Library of the Faculty of Advocates.
Source for Image: Thomas Lawrence, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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