When a man is in a fair way and sees all life open in front of him, he seems to himself to make a very important figure in the world. His horse whinn… - Robert Louis Stevenson
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When a man is in a fair way and sees all life open in front of him, he seems to himself to make a very important figure in the world. His horse whinnies to him; the trumpets blow and the girls look out of window as he rides into town before his company; he receives many assurances of trust and regard--sometimes by express in a letter--sometimes face to face, with persons of great consequence falling on his neck. It is not wonderful if his head is turned for a time. But once he is dead, were he as brave as Hercules or as wise as Solomon, he is soon forgotten.
Robert Louis (Balfour) Stevenson (13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, poet, and travel writer, and a representative of Neo-romanticism.
Biography information from
Wikiquote·
Portrait adapted from
Wikimedia Commons, Henry Walter Barnett (Public domain / CC0)
Also Known As
Alternative Names:
Robert Luis Stivensoni
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Shih-ti-wen-sheng
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Stivenson
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Robert Loui Sitivensin
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Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson
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Robert Lui Stivenson
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RL Stivenson
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RL Stevenson
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RLS
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R. L. Stevenson
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Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson
It is a sore thing to have laboured along and scaled the arduous hilltops, and when all is done, find humanity indifferent to your achievement. Hence physicists condemn the unphysical; financiers have only a superficial toleration for those who know little of stocks; literary persons despise the unlettered; and people of all pursuits combine to disparage those who have none. But though this is one difficulty of the subject, it is not the greatest. You could not be put in prison for speaking against industry, but you can be sent to Coventry for speaking like a fool. The greatest difficulty with most subjects is to do them well; therefore, please to remember this is an apology. It is certain that much may be judiciously argued in favour of diligence; only there is something to be said against it, and that is what, on the present occasion, I have to say.
