Walter Scott Quotes

There is nothing hard inside the olive; nothing hard outside the nut.

Maybe I'm like acts of Congress or your favorite Chinese restaurant - you don't really want to know what's going on behind the door. I'm a real study in contrast, I expect, looking from without. But it adds up to what you get on stage.

I love things that are harsh and things that are too loud. And I love lulling people into a false sense of security. That's life.

A cherub's face, a reptile all the rest.

I wanted to portray very, very dark subject matter and a deceptively complex story in the brightest colours and simplest lines possible to leave the readers reeling.

Intelligence and courtesy not always are combined; Often in a wooden house a golden room we find.

The reason we're so dangerous is because we're totally harmless.

I'm nothing more than what you actually see, but I am also the complete opposite.

The cleanest book on a dusty bookshelf is usually a dirty one.

He wrapped himself in quotations - as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of Emperors.

There's nothing lovelier than having a newborn and still plotting a dark conspiracy.

I tell people all the time, 'Don't be fooled, because I am a man by day.'

Intelligence is silence, truth is being invisible. But what a racket I make in declaring this.

Not often in the story of mankind does a man arrive on earth who is both steel and velvet, who is as hard as rock and soft as drifting fog, who holds in his heart and mind the paradox of terrible storm and peace unspeakable and perfect.

The most winning woman I ever knew was hanged for poisoning three little children for their insurance-money, and the most repellent man of my acquaintance is a philanthropist who has spent nearly a quarter of a million upon the London poor.

One of my favorite clothing patterns is camouflage. Because when you're in the woods it makes you blend in. But when you're not it does just the opposite. It's like, 'Hey, there's an asshole.'

Pure by impure is not seen.

Safe upon the solid rock the ugly houses stand. Come and see my shining palace built upon the sand!

I'm always perversely attracted to characters that seem one thing, but are ultimately revealed as another...

It was terribly beautiful to Tess today, for since her eyes last fell upon it she had learnt that the serpent hisses where the sweet birds sing.

Everybody thinks I'm this delicate little girl. But you can't tell a book by it's cover.' To which she added a momentary smile.

We dreamt of light, but hoped for darkness.

Although the photographer and the art thief were close friends, neither had ever taken the other's picture.

The flowers were so beautiful, so delicate and unthreatening, but they choked everything around them.

Success for some people, depends on becoming well-known, for others it depends on never being found out.