Robert Louis Stevenson Quotes (177 Quotes)

It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.

Perpetual devotion to what a man calls his business is only to be sustained by perpetual neglect of many other things.

That man is a success who has lived well, laughed often and loved much.

A little love is none at all
That wanders or that fears;
A hearty love dwells still at call
To kisses or to tears.

Absences are a good influence in love and keep it bright and delicate.

The cruelest lies are often told in silence.

You could read Kant by yourself, if you wanted; but you must share a joke with some one else.

Once you are married, there is nothing left for you, not even suicide.

Such a life is very fine,
But it's not so nice as mine:
You must often as you trod,
Have wearied not to be abroad.

Fiction is to the grown man what play is to the child; it is there that he changes the atmosphere and tenor of his life.

Old and young, we are all on our last cruise.

Love but my dog and love my love,
Adore with me a common star -
I value not the rest above
The ashes of a bad cigar.

Love, and the love of life and act
Dance, live and sing through all our furrowed tract;
Till the great God enamoured gives
To him who reads, to him who lives,
That rare and fair romantic strain
That whoso hears must hear again.

Awhile - and see how love be grown
In loveliness and power!

If that indeed were love at all,
As still, my love, I trow,
By what dear name am I to call
The bond that holds me now

For memories of love are more
Than the white moon there above,
And dearer than quiet moonshine
Are the thoughts of her I love.

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me, And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.

Even if the doctor does not give you a year, even if he hesitates about a month, make one brave push and see what can be accomplished in a week.

Christmas at Sea The sheets were frozen hard, and they cut the naked hand The decks were like a slide, where a seaman scarce could stand, The wind was a nor'-wester, blowing squally off the sea And the cliffs and spouting breakers were the only thing a-

We are all travellers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend.

All I seek, the heaven above And the road below me.

Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others.

I am in the habit of looking not so much to the nature of a gift as to the spirit in which it is offered.

Marriage: A friendship recognized by the police.

These are my politics to change what we can to better what we can but still to bear in mind that man is but a devil weakly fettered by some generous beliefs and impositions and for no word however sounding, and no cause however just and pious, to relax the stricture on these bonds.

The truth that is suppressed by friends is the readiest weapon of the enemy.

O Leerie, I'll go round at night and light the lamps with you.

It is a golden maxim to cultivate the garden for the nose, and the eyes will take care of themselves.

Nothing like a little judicious levity.

Every one lives by selling something.

Man is a creature who lives not upon bread alone, but primarily by catchwords.

He who sows hurry reaps indigestion.

It's a pleasant thing to be young, and have ten toes.

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.

Keep your eyes open to your mercies. The man who forgets to be thankful has fallen asleep in life.

Talk is by far the most accessible of pleasures. It costs nothing in money, it is all profit, it completes our education, founds and fosters our friendships, and can be enjoyed at any age and in almost any state of health.

The habit of being happy enables one to be freed, or largely freed, from the domination of outward conditions.

Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm.

Sooner or later everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences.

You can forgive people who do not follow you through a philosophical disquisition; but to find your wife laughing when you had tears in your eyes, or staring when you were in a fit of laughter, would go some way towards a dissolution of the marriage.

All round your head be angels.

An aim in life is the only fortune worth finding.

Do you hear the song of spring?

Judge each day not by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant.

The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean; not to affect your reader, but to affect him precisely as you wish.

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.

I've a grand memory for forgetting, David'.

To become what we are capable of becoming is the only end in life.

The obscurest epoch is today.

It is better to lose health like a spendthrift than to waste it like a miser.