“Scotland has no unity except on the map”

“Yet I had not been many days shut up with them before I began to be ashamed of my first judgment, when I had drawn away from them at the Ferry pier, as though they had been unclean beasts. No class of man is altogether bad, but each has its own faults and virtues; and these shipmates of mine were no exception to the rule. Rough they were, sure enough; and bad, I suppose; but they had many virtues. They were kind when it occurred to them, simple even beyond the simplicity of a country lad like me, and had some glimmerings of honesty.”

“The captain has said too much or he has said too little, and I'm bound to say that I require an explanation of his words.”

“Everyone who got where he is has had to begin where he was.”

“Seaward ho! Hang the treasure! It's the glory of the sea that has turned my head.”

“To be honest, to be kind - to earn a little and to spend a little less, to make upon the whole a family happier for his presence, to renounce when that shall be necessary and not be embittered, to keep a few friends but these without capitulation - above all, on the same grim condition, to keep friends with himself - here is a task for all that a man has of fortitude and delicacy. He has an ambitious soul who would ask more; he has a hopeful spirit who should look in such an enterprise to be successful.”

“Everyday courage has few witnesses. But yours is no less noble because no drum beats for you and no crowds shout your name.”