The words died in Richard’s throat. He saw, through tears, the poor old man, bemused with liquor and sorrow, go shambling away, with bowed head, across the snow, and the unnoticed dog whimpering at his heels, and for the first time began to understand the desperate game that we play in life; and how a thing once done is not to be changed or remedied, by any penitence.

— Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson Quotes

Mr. Silas Q. Scuddamore was a young American of a simple and harmless disposition, which was the more to his credit as he came from New England – a quarter of the New World not precisely famous for those qualities.

— Robert Louis Stevenson

Man has risen; if he has sprung from the brutes, he can descend again to the same level.

— Robert Louis Stevenson

Eh, man,” said I, drolling with him a little, “you’re very ingenious! But would it not be simpler for you to write him a few words in black and white?” “And that is an excellent observe, Mr. Balfour of Shaws,” says Alan, drolling with me; “and it would certainly be much simpler for me to write to him, but it would be a sore job for John Breck to read it. He would have to go to the school for two-three years; and it’s possible we might be wearied waiting on him.

— Robert Louis Stevenson

He would be aware of the great field of lamps of a nocturnal city; then of the figure of a man walking swiftly; then of a child running from the doctor’s; and then these met, and that human Juggernaut trod the child down and passed on regardless of her screams.

— Robert Louis Stevenson

Well, all of a sudden, a coble with a brown sail and a pair of fishers aboard of it, came flying round that corner of the isle, bound for Iona. I shouted out, and then fell on my knees on the rock and reached up my hands and prayed to them. They were near enough to hear – I could even see the colour of their hair; and there was no doubt but they observed me, for they cried out in the Gaelic tongue, and laughed. But the boat never turned aside, and flew on, right before my eyes, for Iona.

— Robert Louis Stevenson

She shone on the pale background of the world with the brilliance of flowers.

— Robert Louis Stevenson

Alan was delighted. “There are whiles,” said he, “when ye are altogether too canny and Whiggish to be company for a gentleman like me; but there come other whiles when ye show yoursel’ a mettle spark; and it’s then, David, that I love ye like a brother.

— Robert Louis Stevenson

O!’ she cried, joy catching at her voice, ‘O! it is the dawn!

— Robert Louis Stevenson

All the while I was eating, and after that when I was drinking the punch, I could scarce come to believe in my good fortune; and the house, though it was thick with the peat-smoke and as full of holes as a colander, seemed like a palace.

— Robert Louis Stevenson

I’m vexed, sir, about the boat,” says the captain. “There are some pretty men gone to the bottom,” said the stranger, “that I would rather see on the dry land again than half a score of boats.” “Friends of yours?” said Hoseason. “You have none such friends in your country,” was the reply. “They would have died for me like dogs.” “Well, sir,” said the captain, still watching him, “there are more men in the world than boats to put them in.

— Robert Louis Stevenson

It is the fate of sequels to disappoint those who have waited for them; and my David, having been left to kick his heels for more than a lustre in the British Linen Company’s office, must expect his late re-appearance to be greeted with hoots, if not with missiles.

— Robert Louis Stevenson

It’s lucky for James of the Glens that I have boasted beforehand; and none so unlucky for myself, because now I’m committed to do right. I have the name of a gentleman and the means of one; it would be a poor duty that I was wanting in the essence.” And then I thought this was a Pagan spirit, and said a prayer in to myself, asking for what courage I might lack, and that I might go straight to my duty like a soldier to battle, and come off again scatheless, as so many do.

— Robert Louis Stevenson

O, sir!’ she cried, ‘I wish to beg of you to spare my father; for I assure your Highness, if he had known who you was, he would have bitten his tongue out sooner. And Fritz, too – how he went on! But I had a notion; and this morning I went straight down into the stable, and there was your Highness’s crown upon the stirrup-irons! But, O, sir, I made certain you would spare them; for they were as innocent as lambs.

— Robert Louis Stevenson

Non esiste alcun dovere tanto sottovalutato quanto l’essere felici. Quando siamo felici, disseminiamo il mondo di buone azioni involontarie, che rimangono sconosciute persino a noi stessi, o, quando vengono scoperte, soprendono per primo il benefattore.

— Robert Louis Stevenson

And since them that fed him in his exile wouldnae be bought out – right or wrong, he would drive them out. Therefore he sent for lawyers, and papers, and red-coats to stand at his back. And the kindly folk of that country must all pack and tramp, every father’s son out of his father’s house, and out of the place where he was bred and fed, and played when he was a callant. And who are to succeed them?

— Robert Louis Stevenson

And besides, when folk talk of a country covered with troops, it’s but a kind of a byword at the best. A soldier covers nae mair of it than his boot-soles.

— Robert Louis Stevenson

Pattern and argument live in each other; and it is by the brevity, clearness, charm, or emphasis of the second, that we judge the strength and fitness of the first.

— Robert Louis Stevenson

E vedo chiaramente cosa mi resta da fare come mio dovere. Vi ringrazio con tutta l’anima per queste lezioni; ho gli occhi aperti e infine mi vedo per quello che sono.

— Robert Louis Stevenson

In her eyes that hung upon mine, I could read depth beyond depth of passion and sadness, lights of poetry and hope, blackness of despair, and thoughts that were above the earth. It was a lovely body, but the inmate, the soul was more than worthy of that lodging.

— Robert Louis Stevenson

All things therefore seemed to point to this: that I was slowly losing hold of my original and better self, and becoming slowly incorporated with my second and worse.

— Robert Louis Stevenson
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