The Scots have always been an unhappy people; their history is a varying record of heroism, treachery, persistent bloodshed, perpetual feuds and long-winded and sanguine arguments.
Edwin Muir (1887-1959), Scottish Journey

There is an incurable nosiness in the national character.
Cliff Hanley (1922-1999), The Scots

We take a pleasure, a malicious pleasure, I am afraid, in pricking bubbles; and, though we are very sentimental ourselves, we like to pour cold water on other people's sentiment.
John Buchan (1875-1940), Some Scottish characteristics

I have been trying all my life to like Scotchmen, and am obliged to desist from the experiment in despair.
Charles Lamb (1775-1834), Essays of Elia

It is never difficult to distinguish between a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine.
P G Wodehouse (1881-1975), Wodehouse at Work

In Scotland, everybody represses you, if you but propose to step out of the beaten track.
James Mill (1773-1836), James Mill: A Biography

Scotland is indefinable; it has no unity except on a map. Two languages, many dialects, innumerable forms of piety, and countless local patriotisms and prejudices, part us among ourselves more widely than the extreme east and west of that great continent of America.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), In the Valley: The Scot Abroad

'A small family in the congregation of Europe'
Moray McLaren, The Scots