The best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley.

Love's first snow-drop, virgin kiss.

It 's guid to be merry and wise, It 's guid to be honest and true, It 's guid to support Caledonia's cause, And bide by the buff and the blue.

I pick my favourite quotations and store them in my mind as ready armour, offensive or defensive, amid the struggle of this turbulent existence.

My Son, these maxims make a rule An lump them ay thegither: The Rigid Righteous is a fool, The Rigid Wise anither.

Pleasures are like poppies spread: You seize the flow'r, its bloom is shed.

Or like the snow falls in the river, A moment white-then melts for ever . . .