Robert Burns Quotes
There is something so mean and unmanly in the arts of dissimulation and falsehood that I am surprised they can be used by anyone in so noble, so generous a passion as virtuous love.
Burns, Robert. Letter to Alison Begbie, 1780. The Letters of Robert Burns, edited by J. De Lancey Ferguson, vol. 1, Clarendon Press, 1931, p. 7.
This is one of the proverbs of King Solomon of the Jews, son of King David. This quotation urges a leader to avoid advisors and appointees who do not tell the truth.
Robert Burns, also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, the National Bard, Bard of Ayrshire and the Ploughman Poet and various other names and epithets, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language, although much of his writing is in English and a light Scots dialect, accessible to an audience beyond Scotland. He also wrote in standard English, and in these writings his political or civil commentary is often at its bluntest.
