Robert Louis Stevenson Quotes

When things fall out opportunely for the person concerned, he is not apt to be critical about the how or why, his own immediate personal convenience seeming a sufficient reason for the strangest oddities and revolutions in our sublunary things.

To spendthrifts money is so living and actual—it is such a thin veil between them and their pleasures! There is only one limit to their fortune—that of time; and a spendthrift with only a few crowns is the Emperor of Rome until they are spent. For such a person to lose his money is to suffer the most shocking reverse, and fall from heaven to hell, from all to nothing, in a breath.

In many ways an artistic nature unfits a man for practical existence.

Time passes quickly with lovers.

An appeal to his alarm is never a good plan to rid oneself of a spirited young man.

The world is a great place and stocked with wealth and beauty, and there is no limit to the rewards that may be offered. Such an one who would refuse a million of money may sell his honour for an empire or the love of a woman.

A man, Mr. Scrymgeour, may fall into a thousand perplexities, but if his heart be upright and his intelligence unclouded, he will issue from them all without dishonour.

I confess I have no great notion of the use of books, except to amuse a railway journey; although, I believe, there are some very exact treatises on astronomy, the use of the globes, agriculture, and the art of making paper flowers. Upon the less apparent provinces of life I fear you will find nothing truthful.

Decisive actions are often taken in a moment and without any conscious deliverance from the rational parts of man.

There are circumstances in which even the least energetic of mankind learn to behave with vigour and decision; and the most cautious forget their prudence and embrace foolhardy resolutions.

A woman can earn her pardon for a good year of disobedience by a single adroit submission.

A woman loves to be obeyed at first, although afterwards she finds her pleasure in obeying.

People trifle with love. Now, I deny that love is a strong passion. Fear is the strong passion; it is with fear that you must trifle, if you wish to taste the intensest joys of living.

The devil, depend upon it, can sometimes do a very gentlemanly thing.

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