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The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men,
Gang aft a-gley,
And leave us nought but grief and pain,
For promised joy.

— Robert Burns To a Mouse (1785)

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Source and credibility

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Source: To a Mouse (1785), Stanza 7. See also Anna Letitia Barbauld, Rose's Petition; John Dryden, The Hind and the Panther; Alexander Pope, Imitation of Horace, Book II, Satire 6.
Work: To a Mouse, 1785
Source quality: Precise citation Points to a specific work with a page, chapter, date or similar locator, so you can look it up.

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There's some are fou o' love divine;
There's some are fou o' brandy.

They never sought in vain that sought the Lord aright.

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Affliction's sons are brothers in distress;
A brother to relieve,—how exquisite the bliss!

A Winter Night (1787)

Chords that vibrate sweetest pleasure
Thrill the deepest notes of woe.

Johnson's The Scots Musical Museum (1787)

The rank is but the guinea's stamp,
The man's the gowd for a' that.

Perhaps it may turn out a sang:
Perhaps turn out a sermon.

Beneath the milk-white thorn that scents the evening gale.

The Cotter's Saturday Night (1786)

Gars auld claes look amaist as weel's the new.

The Cotter's Saturday Night (1786)

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More quotes by Robert Burns

The best laid schemes o' mice and men
Gang aft a-gley;
And leave us naught but grief and pain
For promised joy.

Kings may be blest, but Tam was glorious,
O'er a' the ills o' life victorious.

Tam o' Shanter (1790)

Nae man can tether time or tide.

Tam o' Shanter (1790)

What's done we partly may compute,
But know not what's resisted.

Where sits our sulky, sullen dame,
Gathering her brows like gathering storm,
Nursing her wrath to keep it warm.

Tam o' Shanter (1790)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Robert Burns (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.