Quotations….

“…in Paisley…my worthy, wise friend, Mr Pattison, did not allow me a moment’s respite. I was there ten hours; during which time I was introduced to nine men worth six thousands; five men worth ten thousands; his brother, richly worth twenty thousands; and a young weaver, who will have thirty thousands good, when his father, who has no more children than the said weaver….dies.”

“Sylvander” to “Clarinda” (Robert Burns to Mrs Agnes McLehose 1788)

“Where Cart rins rowin’ to the sea,
By mony a flower and spreading tree,
There lives a lad, the lad for me,
He is a gallant Weaver.
O, I had wooers aught or nine,
They gied me rings and ribbons fine;
And I was fear’d my heart wad tine,
And I gied it to the Weaver.”

From “The Gallant Weaver” by Robert Burns (1791)

“May Scotia never want the sword of a Wallace, nor the pen of a Burns”

Toast at the first Burns Supper of the Paisley Burns Club, 29th January 1805, held in the Star Inn, Paisley – the minutes were taken by the club secretary, Paisley’s own poet, Robert Tannahill.

“There cannot be too many statues erected to the memory of Burns.”

Andrew Carnegie

“When Scotland forgets Burns, then history will forget Scotland.”

Professor Blackie

“The books that have most influenced me are – Coleridge and Keats in my youth, Burns as I grew older and wiser”

John Ruskin

“Is the intellectual King of men…..to be placed in the dingy precincts, surrounded by the Hackney cabs, where the wrecks of life trudge to the prison cells, and where the unearthly scream of the steam engine ever and anon reverberates in the ear…..? Is this where you suggest to place the statue of our national poet Robert Burns? No! For heavens sake, no!”

Mr. Wallace of Gleniffer in a letter to a Glasgow newspaper, quoted in the Paisley Daily Express of February 15th 1896, criticising attempts to site the statue in County Square

“The vast majority of the public desire to see that statue placed in the Dunn Square.”

“St. Mirren” in a letter printed in the Paisley Daily Express 27th April 1896

“Burns’ true life began with his death. With the poet passed all that was gross or impure; the clear spirit stood revealed, and soared at once to its accepted place among the fixed stars in the firmament of the rare immortals.”

Lord Rosebery

“It has often been said that Paisley has been singularly fortunate in the generosity of her wealthier sons. Today, however, we see before us a generosity of a different kind - that is, the generosity of the people to the people…..”

Provost McKenzie at the unveiling of the statue, 26th September 1896

“Paisley is noted for its poets – it is a town of poets.”

From “The World’s Memorials of Robert Burns” (1911) by Edward Goodwillie, published in Detroit, Michigan

"..we have just begun a new year, at least according to the Gregorian calendar. One can almost, still, hear the echo of millions of people singing "Auld Lang Syne", Burns's great ode to friendship. So let us allow hope to be renewed. Let us admire the enduring resonance of the work of Robert Burns. And let us dream, as he did, of a true brotherhood - and sisterhood - that embraces and encompasses all humankind, and allows all people a chance to enjoy their inalienable rights, dignity and freedom.

Kofi Annan, at the Robert Burns Memorial Lecture given at the United Nations, January 13th, 2004