Robert Louis Stevenson Quotes

Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.

The man is a success who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much; who has gained the respect of intelligent men and the love of children; who has filled his niche and accomplished his task; who leaves the world better than he found it, whether by an improved poppy, a perfect poem, or a rescued soul; who never lacked appreciation of earth's beauty or failed to express it; who looked for the best in others and gave the best he had.

You can give without loving, but you can never love without giving.

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

A friend is a gift you give yourself.

Do not measure success by today's harvest. Measure success by the seeds you plant today.

Make the most of the best and the least of the worst.

An aim in life is the only fortune worth finding.

I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move.

Nothing more strongly arouses our disgust than cannibalism, yet we make the same impression on Buddhists and vegetarians, for we feed on babies, though not our own.

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.

When a torrent sweeps a man against a boulder, you must expect him to scream, and you need not be surprised if the scream is sometimes a theory.

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

To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life.

Everybody, soon or late, sits down to a banquet of consequences.

There are, indeed, few merrier spectacles than that of many windmills bickering together in a fresh breeze over a woody country; their halting alacrity of movement, their pleasant business, making bread all day with uncouth gesticulation; their air, gigantically human, as of a creature half alive, put a spirit of romance into the tamest landscape.

To love is the great amulet that makes this world a garden.

The person who has stopped being thankful has fallen asleep in life.

A generous prayer is never presented in vain; the petition may be refused, but the petitioner is always, I believe, rewarded by some gracious visitation.

Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary.

The little rift between the sexes is astonishingly widened by simply teaching one set of catchwords to the girls and another to the boys.

I will make you brooches and toys for your delight Of bird-song at morning and star-shine at night. I will make a palace fit for you and me Of green days in forests and blue days at sea.

Everyone lives by selling something.

The Devil, can sometimes do a very gentlemanly thing.

Flower god, god of the spring, beautiful, bountiful, Cold-dyed shield in the sky, lover of versicles, Here I wander in April Cold, grey-headed; and still to my Heart, Spring comes with a bound, Spring the deliverer, Spring, song-leader in woods, chorally resonant; Spring, flower-planter in meadows, Child-conductor in willowy Fields deep dotted with bloom, daisies and crocuses: Here that child from his heart drinks of eternity: O child, happy are children!

You think dogs will not be in heaven? I tell you, they will be there long before any of us.

Anyone can carry his burden, however heavy, 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.

If a man loves the labour of his trade, apart from any question of success or fame, the gods have called him.

I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both; and I believe they both get paid in the end; but the fools first.

He is not easy to describe. There is something wrong with his appearance; something displeasing, something downright detestable. I never saw a man I so disliked, and yet I scarce know why. He must be deformed somewhere; he gives a strong feeling of deformity, although I couldn’t specify the point. He’s an extraordinary-looking man, and yet I really can name nothing out of the way. No sir; I can make no hand of it; I can’t describe him. And it’s not want of memory; for I declare I can see him this moment.

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.

Books are good enough in their own way, but they are a poor substitute for life.

The cruelest lies are often told in silence.

Jekyll had more than a father's interest; Hyde had more than a son's indifference.

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.

I who all the Winter through, Cherished other loves than you And kept hands with hoary policy in marriage-bed and pew; Now I know the false and true, For the earnest sun looks through, And my old love comes to meet me in the dawning and the dew.

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.

Everyday courage has few witnesses. But yours is no less noble because no drum beats for you and no crowds shout your name.

If he be Mr. Hyde" he had thought, "I shall be Mr. Seek.

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

We consume the carcasses of creatures of like appetites, passions and organs with our own, and fill the slaughterhouses daily with screams of pain and fear.

Make up your mind to be happy. Learn to find pleasure in simple things.

Like a bird singing in the rain, let grateful memories survive in time of sorrow.

There is nothing but God's grace. We walk upon it; we breathe it; we live and die by it; it makes the nails and axles of the universe.

Be what you are, and become what you are capable of becoming.

In each of us, two natures are at war – the good and the evil. All our lives the fight goes on between them, and one of them must conquer. But in our own hands lies the power to choose – what we want most to be we are.

It takes hard writing to make easy reading.

Nothing like a little judicious levity.

To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive.

And this shall be for music when no one else is near, The fine song for singing, the rare song to hear! That only I remember, that only you admire, Of the broad road that stretches and the roadside fire.