136 Quotes by Alexander Smith

Stirling, like a huge brooch, clasps Highlands and Lowlands together.

Some books are drenchèd sandsOn which a great soul's wealth lies all in heaps,Like a wrecked argosy.

Each time we love,We turn a nearer and a broader markTo that keen archer, Sorrow, and he strikes.

The greatness of an artist or a writer does not depend on what he has in common with other artists and writers, but on what he has peculiar to himself.

An old novel has a history of its own.

The discovery of a grey hair when you are brushing out your whiskers of a morning—first fallen flake of the coming snows of age—is a disagreeable thing....

A man can bear a world's contempt when he has that within which says he's worthy. When he contemns himself, there burns the hell.

Not on the stage alone, in the world also, a man's real character comes out best in his asides.

Looking forward into an empty year strikes one with a certain awe, because one finds therein no recognition. The years behind have a friendly aspect, and they are warmed by the fires we have kindled, and all their echoes are the echoes of our own voices.