Robert Louis Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, and essayist, best known for his timeless classics like “Treasure Island,” “Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” and “Kidnapped.” His writings continue to inspire and captivate readers of all ages, with his vivid imagination and masterful storytelling.
In addition to his literary works, Stevenson also left behind a legacy of insightful and thought-provoking quotes, covering a wide range of topics, including life, love, adventure, and human nature. In this article, we will explore some of Robert Louis Stevenson’s most memorable and inspiring quotes
70 Robert Louis Stevenson Quotes
- “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”
2. “Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well.”
3. “Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others.”
4. “There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.”
5. “A friend is a gift you give yourself.”
6. “Keep your eyes open to your mercies. The man who forgets to be thankful has fallen asleep in life.”
7. “It is a good thing to make a bridge of gold to a flying enemy”
8. “The saints are the sinners who keep on trying.”
9. “You must suffer me to go my own dark way.”
10. “You cannot run away from a weakness, you must sometimes fight it out or perish. And if that be so, why not now and where you stand?”
11. “An aim in life is the only fortune worth finding.”
12. “you can not run away from weakness; you must fight it out… or perish.”
13. “Our business in life is not to succeed, but to continue to fail in good spirits.”
14. “Everyday courage has few witnesses. But yours is no less noble because no drum beats for you and no crowds shout your name.”
Robert Louis Stevenson Quotes About Life
15. “Everyone who got where he is has had to begin where he was.”
16. “Both sides of me were in dead earnest.”
17. “Dead men don’t bite”
18. “If you keep on drinking rum, the world will soon be quit of a very dirty scoundrel!”
19. “I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.”
20. “I kept always two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in.”
21. “There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy. By being happy we sow anonymous benefits upon the world.”
22. “I regard you with an indifference closely bordering on aversion.”
23. “A good conscience is eight parts of courage.”
24. “You can give without loving, but you can never love without giving.”
25. “Everyone, at some time or another, sits down to a banquet of consequences. ”
26. “The world is so full of a number of things, I ’m sure we should all be as happy as kings.”
27. “The most beautiful adventures are not those we go to seek.”
“They say cowardice is infectious; but then argument is, on the other hand, a great emboldener;”
28. “Sooner or later we all sit down to a banquet of consequences”
29. “The devil, depend upon it, can sometimes do a very gentlemanly thing.”
30. “Marriage is a friendship recognized by the police.”
Famous Robert Louis Stevenson Quotes
31. “Let any man speak long enough, he will get believers.”
32. “It is perhaps a more fortunate destiny to have a taste for collecting shells than to be born a millionaire.”
33. “We must go on, because we can’t turn back.”
34. “Compromise is the best and cheapest lawyer”
35. “I sometimes think if we knew all, we should be more glad to get away.”
36. “All speech, written or spoken, is a dead language, until it finds a willing and prepared hearer. ”
37. “There is a romance about all those who are abroad in the black hours.”
38. “Let any one speak long enough, he will get believers.”
39. “There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy”
40. “Is there anything in life so disenchanting as attainment?”
41. “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.”
42. “A true writer is someone the gods have called to the task.”
43. “The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean.”
44. “Once you are married, there is nothing left for you, not even suicide.”
45. “No class of man is altogether bad, but each has its own faults and virtues.”
Short Robert Louis Stevenson Quotes
46. “So long as we love we serve; so long as we are loved by others, I would almost say that we are indispensable; and no man is useless while he has a friend.”
47. “The cruelest lies are often told in silence.”
48. “It is one thing to mortify curiosity, another to conquer it. ”
49. “Make the most of the best and the least of the worst.”
50. “To love is the great amulet that makes this world a garden”
51. “Books are good enough in their own way but they are a mighty bloodless substitute for life.”
52. “When I suffer in mind, stories are my refuge; I take them like opium; and consider one who writes them as a sort of doctor of the mind.”
53. “The existence of a man is so small a thing to take, so mighty a thing to employ!”
54. “It is the mark of a modest man to accept his friendly circle ready-made from the hands of opportunity”
55. “It is always a bad sign when the lower classes laugh: their taste in humour is both poor and sinister;”
56. “There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy.”
57. “To travel hopefully is better than to have arrived.”
58. “Saints are sinners who kept on going.”
59. “A hanging in a good quarrel is an easy death they say, though I could never hear of any that came back to say so.”
Thought-Provoking Robert Louis Stevenson Quotes
60. “The more things are wrong the more we must act as if all were right.”
61. “The truth that is suppressed by friends is the readiest weapon of the enemy.”
62. “The workpeople, to be sure, were most annoyingly slow, but time cured that.”
63. “If you are going to make a book end badly, it must end badly from the beginning.”
64. “If thy morals make thee dreary, depend upon it they are wrong”
65. “Cruelest lies are often told in silence”
66. “I was still cursed with my duality of purpose.”
67. “You cannot run away from a weakness, you must sometimes fight it out or perish. And if that be so, why not now, and where you stand?”
68. “Vanity dies hard, in some obstinate cases it outlives the man.”
69. “We fall in love, we drink hard, we run to and fro upon the earth like frightened sheep.”
70. “The best things in life are nearest, breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet.”
Additional Read: Robert Louis Stevenson | Biography, Books and Facts
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) was a Scottish novelist, poet, and essayist, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers of the 19th century. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Stevenson was the son of a prominent lighthouse engineer and grew up with a love for literature and adventure. He studied law at the University of Edinburgh but soon abandoned it to pursue his passion for writing.
Stevenson’s literary career began in 1878 with the publication of his first book, “An Inland Voyage,” a travelogue chronicling his canoe journey through Belgium and France. He continued to publish a variety of works, including essays, short stories, and novels, such as “Treasure Island,” “Kidnapped,” “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” and “The Master of Ballantrae,” which have become classics of English literature.
Stevenson’s writing is known for its vivid imagination, masterful storytelling, and exploration of themes such as adventure, identity, morality, and the human condition. His work is also notable for its wide appeal to readers of all ages and backgrounds.
Despite his literary success, Stevenson suffered from poor health throughout his life, and his travels to warmer climates in search of a cure became the inspiration for some of his most famous works, including “The Amateur Emigrant” and “The Silverado Squatters.” He eventually settled in Samoa in the South Pacific, where he lived for the last years of his life, immersed in the local culture and continuing to write until his death in 1894.
Today, Robert Louis Stevenson’s legacy lives on through his timeless works of literature, which continue to inspire and captivate readers around the world. His influence on popular culture is also apparent, with his characters and stories adapted into countless films, television shows, and other forms of media. Stevenson’s contribution to the literary canon is undeniable, and his impact on the world of storytelling will continue to be felt for generations to come.