"For so long as one hundred men remain alive, we shall never under any conditions submit to the domination of the English.
It is not for glory or riches or honours that we fight, but only for liberty, which no good man will consent to lose but with his life."

The Declaration of Arbroath, 1320

"The Scottish Parliament adjourned on the 25th day of March 1707 is hereby reconvened."

Winnie Ewing, acting speaker at the first session of the devolved Scottish Parliament May 1999

"Scottish by birth, British by law,
Highlander by the grace of God."

"I have never betrayed Edward, nor an English Lord, for I have never submitted to them. You cannot break a word you never gave, and my allegiance is and always has been to the legitimate King of Scots. Edward is a tyrant, usurper and a criminal fit for the rope"

"For that is the mark of the Scots of all classes:
that he stands in an attitude towards the past unthinkable to Englishmen,
and remembers and cherishes the memory of his forebears, good or bad;
and there burns alive in him a sense of identity with the dead even to the twentieth generation."

"Some hae meat, and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it;
But we hae meat, and we can eat -
And sae the Lord be thankit."

"...I feel a sort of reverence in going over these scenes in this most beautiful country, which I am proud to call my own, where there was such devoted loyalty to the family of my ancestors - for Stuart blood is in my veins..."

"We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation."

"Did not strong connections draw me elsewhere, I believe Scotland would be the country I would choose to end my days in."

"Minds are like parachutes. They only function when they are open."

Sir James Dewar

"Ye canna recite Burns juist oot o yer heid. If it disnae come fae yer hert and up through yer heid, it's no worth sayin. Because it must touch the hert, because Burns touched the hert a' the time."

Wullie Morrison, a Burns enthusiast

"Do try to sound the "r" although not with the exaggerated trill usually given to it by so-called Scots comedians. But, again this to my English readers, don't even attempt to get the guttural sounds of "ach" and "loch". You will only strangle yourselves. To say "ach!" correctly you need generations of Scots blood behind you and you must have been born with the peat-reek in your nostrils and the sight of the hills as the first thing ever you clapped your eyes on."

"I would hate to die with a heart attack and have a good liver, kidneys and brains. When I die, I want everything to be knackered."

"I fear that the development of the railways will destroy the need for waterproof coats."

“When the British Open is in Scotland, there's something special about it. And when it's at St. Andrews, it's even greater.”