We build statues out of snow, and weep to see them melt.

—Walter Scott

permanence sadness illusion

About Walter Scott

Portrait of Walter Scott

Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature. He is known for his Waverley novels (1814–1831), which were, for nearly a century, among the most popular and widely...

More quotations from Walter Scott

For success, attitude is equally as important as ability.

—Walter Scott

Faces that have charmed us the most escape us the soonest.

—Walter Scott

Success - keeping your mind awake and your desire asleep.

—Walter Scott

mind success desire

Unless a tree has borne blossoms in spring, you will vainly look for fruit on it in autumn.

—Walter Scott

More quotations tagged with “illusion”

Despair is the only cure for illusion. Without despair we cannot transfer our allegiance to reality — it is a kind of mourning period for our fantasies. Some people do not survive this despair, but no major change within a person can occur without it.

—Philip Slater

reality despair illusion fantasy

I know you'll leave. I don't have any grand illusions.

—Abbi Glines in Until The End

relationships illusion commitment

I guess every generation is doomed to fight its war, . . . suffer the loss of the same old illusions, and learn the same old lessons on its own.

—Philip Caputo

war ignorance learning youth loss illusion

Channeling is just bad ventriloquism. You use another voice, but people can see your lips moving.

—Penn Jillette

illusion psychics

Writing gives you the illusion of control, and then you realize it's just an illusion, that people are going to bring their own stuff into it.

—David Sedaris

writing control psychology illusion