“The only proof of madness that the John Bulls find in me is my being contented with every thing as I find it.”

Defending contentment as a form of sanity against English expectations · Letter from the Cape of Good Hope, 1798

• Adaptation
• Contentment
• Place

“When alone, I am not above five-and-twenty. I can entertain myself with a succession of inventions... I forget that I am sixty-eight, and if by chance I see myself in the glass looking very abominable — I do not care.”

Celebrating the sustaining power of occupation against the claims of age · Personal notes or vagrant scraps, late in life

• Age
• Joy
• Occupation

“The song of Auld Robin Gray was written by me in 1771, when I was very young.”

A rare direct acknowledgement of authorship after years of keeping it private · Letter to Sir Walter Scott, 1823

• Memory
• Poetry