Edinburgh Quotes: Sayings about the Scottish Capital

Last Updated on 22nd August 2024 by Sophie Nadeau

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Lively, home to whisky, and filled with beautiful architecture, you can’t go wrong by heading to Scotland and spending a long weekend discovering the best of what its capital city, Edinburgh, has to offer. Need more proof? Here are the very best Edinburgh quotes and sayings about the Scottish capital city!

If you’re looking for the perfect weekend break in Europe with just the right amount of history and magic (there’s plenty of Harry Potter inspiration in the city), then you need to look no further than the city of Edinburgh.

After all, highlights of this Scottish settlement include walking along the Royal Mile, admiring the view of the city from its impressive Castle, and climbing the towering Arthur’s Seat.

20+ Quotes about Edinburgh: Sayings about the Scottish Capital

“The view of Edinburgh from the road before you enter Leith is quite enchanting: it is, as Albert said, fairy-like and what you would only imagine as a thing to dream of, or to see in a picture.” – Queen Victoria’s journal

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“Edinburgh is so cultural and such a beautiful place to walk around.” – Rupert Friend

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“The most beautiful of all the capitals of Europe.” – Sir John Betjeman (now buried in St Enodoc’s Church in Cornwall)

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“My dear Sir, do not think that I blaspheme when I tell you that your great London, as compared to Dun-Edin, ‘mine own romantic town’, is as prose compared to poetry, or as a great rumbling, rambling, heavy Epic compared to a Lyric, brief, bright, clear, and vital as a flash of lightning.” – Charlotte Brontë

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“Coming back to Edinburgh is to me like coming home.” – Charles Dickens

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“Edinburgh is alive with words.” – Sara Sheridan

“When I looked out in the morning it is as if I had waked in Utopia.” – George Elliott

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“I find Edinburgh a stimulating place in which to live, with it being a city of contrasts, both architecturally and socially, and each district having a definite character.” – Joan Lingard

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“There’s no leaving Edinburgh, No shifting it around: it stays with you, always.” – Alan Bold

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“Edinburgh is a sort of gothic fairytale city, and it can be a gothic horror city as well.” – David Mackenzie

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“I love Scotland. Edinburgh is a beautiful city and has a wonderful tradition of supporting the arts.” – Peter Hambleton

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“I love coming back to Edinburgh. It’s nice to spend real time here.” – Sophie Wu

“This is a city of shifting light, of changing skies, of sudden vistas. A city so beautiful it breaks the heart again and again.” – Alexander McCall Smith

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“Edinburgh is a hotbed of genius.” – Tobias Smollett

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“The Scots think of it as their capital; they’re too possessive, Edinburgh belongs to the world.” – Richard Demarco

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“It is quite lovely – bits of it.” – Oscar Wilde

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“But Edinburgh is a mad god’s dream.” – Hugh MacDiarmid

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“I always feel that when I come to Edinburgh, in many ways I am coming home.” – Alan Rickman

“Edina! Scotia’s darling seat!” – Robert Burns

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“It seemed as if the rock and castle assumed a new aspect every time I looked at them; and Arthur’s Seat was perfect witchcraft. I don’t wonder that anyone residing in Edinburgh should write poetically.” – Washington Irving

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“And yet the place establishes an interest in people’s hearts; go where they will, they find no city of the same distinction.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

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“Edinburgh isn’t so much a city, more a way of life… I doubt I’ll ever tire of exploring Edinburgh, on foot or in print.” – Ian Rankin

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“Beautiful city of Edinburgh, most wonderful to be seen; with your ancient palace of Holyrood and Queen’s Park Green; and your big, magnificent, elegant New College; where people from all nations can be taught knowledge.” – William McGonagall

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“When I looked out in the morning it is as if I had waked in Utopia.” – George Eliot