The song made its first appearance in a letter Burns wrote to George Thomson in January 1795.

It was subsequently published anonymously in the August edition of the Glasgow Magazine, a radical monthly.

[1] Thomson later included it in the fourth volume of his Select Collection of Original Scottish Airs, giving it the title "The Honest Man the Best of Men".

"Trotz alledem" [de], a German translation of the song written by Ferdinand Freiligrath, was widely used during the Revolutions of 1848.

The words "pride o' worth" appear on the crest of the Scottish Qualifications Authority.