"The Best Laid Schemes Of Mice and Men Oftwn Go Arie"?

Question

Who said it??? Its for extra Credit in my English Class.

FIRST ANSWER GETS BEST!!!

Answer 1

The line is from the poem, "To a Mouse," subtitled "On Turning Her Up in Her Nest With The Plough, November, 1785," by Robert Burns (1759 - 1797).  While Burns was plowing a field he struck a mouse's ground nest and wrote this beautiful poem about the experience and comparing the mouse's plight with that of his own.  The entire stanza reads:

But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane,

In proving foresight may be vain;

The best laid schemes o' mice an' men

Gang aft agley,

and lea'e us nought but grief an' pain

For promis'd joy!

It is obviously written in Burns' Scottish dialect.  To translate it into modern English it would read:

But Mousie, you are not alone

in proving foresight may be in vain;

the best laid schemes of mice and men

often go awry

and leave us nothing but grief and pain

for promised joy.

Answer 2

'The best laid plans o' mice and men often gang agley' - Rabbie Burns, Scottish poet - 'Google' this name and you'll find references to his poetry.

Answer 3

Robert Burns wrote it, and probably said it too.

Eddie Izzard quotes it in his stand up, and it is Hilarious!!  "Does that mean the worst plans go quite well?"