The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men, Gang aft agley.An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain, For promis'd joy!(To A Mouse)

When Nature her great masterpiece designed,And framed her last, best work, the human mind,Her eye intent on all the wondrous plan,She formed of various stuff the various Man.

I love drinking now and then. It defecates the standing pool of thought. A man perpetually in the paroxysm and fears of inebriety is like a half-drowned stupid wretch condemned to labor unceasingly in water; but a now-and-then tribute to Bacchus is like the cold bath, bracing and invigorating.

The upright, honest-hearted man Who strives to do the best he can, Need never fear the church's ban Or hell's damnation.

The rank is but the guinea's stamp, The man's the gowd for a' that.

Now a' is done that men can do, And a' is done in vain.

Nae man can tether time or tide.

A prince can mak a belted knight, A marquis, duke, and a' that; But an honest man's aboon his might: Guid faith, he maunna fa' that.

Auld Nature swears the lovely dears Her noblest work she classes, O; Her 'prentice han' she tried on man, And then she made the lasses, O!