Quotes by Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson

Scottish writer and poet

Lived from: 1850 - 1894

Category: Writers (Contemporary) | Poets (Contemporary) Country: FlagUnited Kingdom

Born: 13 november 1850 Died: 3 december 1894

  • To be wholly devoted to some intellectual exercise is to have succeeded in life.
  • When I am grown to man's estate I shall be very proud and great. And tell the other girls and boys Not to meddle with my toys.
  • If a man loves the labor of his trade apart from any question of success or fame, the Gods have called him.
  • Now that we know 'that life is only a stage to play the fool upon for as long as the part amuses us.
  • I never weary of great churches. It is my favorite kind of mountain scenery. Mankind was never so happily inspired as when it made a cathedral.
  • I have done my fiddling so long under Vesuvius that I have almost forgotten to play, and can only wait for the eruption and think it long of coming. Literally no man has more wholly outlived life than I. And still it's good fun.
  • There are not words enough in all Shakespeare to express the merest fraction of a man's experience in an hour.
  • Some people swallow the universe like a pill; they travel on through the world, like smiling images pushed from behind.
  • The cruelest lies are often told in silence. A man may have sat in a room for hours and not opened his mouth, and yet come out of that room a disloyal friend or a vile calumniator.
  • To know what you prefer instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you ought to prefer is to have kept your soul alive.
  • Anyone can carry his burden, however hard, until nightfall. Anyone can do his work, however hard, for one day. Anyone can live sweetly, patiently, lovingly, purely, until the sun goes down. And this is all that life really means.
  • Perpetual devotion to what a man calls his business, is only to be sustained by perpetual neglect of many other things.
  • Every man has a sane spot somewhere.
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Quotes 1 till 20 of 93.

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  • Judge each day not by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant.
    ― Robert Louis Stevenson
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  • Most of our pocket wisdom is conceived for the use of mediocre people, to discourage them from ambitious attempts, and generally console them in their mediocrity.
    ― Robert Louis Stevenson
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  • That man is a success who has lived well, laughed often and loved much.
    ― Robert Louis Stevenson
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  • There is only one difference between a long life and a good dinner: that, in the dinner, the sweets come last.
    My Best Short Stories (2014) 75
    ― Robert Louis Stevenson
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  • A faculty for idleness implies a catholic appetite and a strong sense of personal identity.
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  • A friend is a gift you give yourself.
    ― Robert Louis Stevenson
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  • A friend is a present you give to yourself.
    ― Robert Louis Stevenson
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  • A friend is somebody who loves us with understanding, as well as emotion.
    ― Robert Louis Stevenson
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  • Absences are a good influence in love and keep it bright and delicate.
    Virginibus Puerisque (1881)
    ― Robert Louis Stevenson
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  • All speech, written or spoken, is a dead language, until it finds a willing and prepared hearer.
    ― Robert Louis Stevenson
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  • An aim in life is the only fortune worth finding.
    ― Robert Louis Stevenson
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  • An aspiration is a joy forever, a possession as solid as a landed estate.
    Memories, Portraits, Essays and Records (2014)
    ― Robert Louis Stevenson
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  • Anyone can carry his burden, however hard, until nightfall. Anyone can do his work, however hard, for one day. Anyone can live sweetly, patiently, lovingly, purely, until the sun goes down. And this is all that life really means.
    ― Robert Louis Stevenson
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  • Be what you are, and become what you are capable of becoming.
    ― Robert Louis Stevenson
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  • Books are good enough in their own way, but they are a mighty bloodless substitute for life.
    ― Robert Louis Stevenson
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  • Compromise is the best and cheapest lawyer.
    ― Robert Louis Stevenson
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  • Do not write merely to be understood. Write so you cannot possibly be misunderstood.
    ― Robert Louis Stevenson
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  • Each has his own tree of ancestors, but at the top of all sits Probably Arboreal.
    ― Robert Louis Stevenson
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  • Every man has a sane spot somewhere.
    ― Robert Louis Stevenson
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  • Everybody, soon or late, sits down to a banquet of consequences.
    ― Robert Louis Stevenson
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Questions and Answers

What are the most famous quotes from Robert Louis Stevenson?

The two most famous quotes from Robert Louis Stevenson are:

  • "Judge each day not by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant."
  • "Most of our pocket wisdom is conceived for the use of mediocre people, to discourage them from ambitious attempts, and generally console them in their mediocrity."

When did Robert Louis Stevenson live?

Robert Louis Stevenson was born in 1850 and died in the year 1894.