Robert Louis Stevenson Quotes

Powerful Robert Louis Stevenson for Daily Growth

About Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), a Scottish novelist, poet, and travel writer, is renowned as one of the great storytellers in the English language. Born on November 13, 1850, in Edinburgh, Scotland, to a lighthouse engineer and his wife, Stevenson was a sensitive child with a vivid imagination. His health fragile due to tuberculosis, he was educated at home before attending Edinburgh University at age 17. However, poor health forced him to abandon formal education after just one year. Stevenson's works were heavily influenced by his Scottish heritage, as well as his love for travel and adventure. His travels to France, America, and the Pacific Islands provided inspiration for his novels, including "Treasure Island" (1883) and "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" (1886), both seminal works in the realm of fiction. Stevenson's health continued to deteriorate throughout his life, but this did not hinder his prolific output. His works spanned various genres, including romance, historical fiction, travel writing, and short stories. "Kidnapped" (1886), another treasure of Scottish literature, follows the adventures of a young Jacobite after the Battle of Culloden in 1746. Stevenson's life was marked by personal strife, including his turbulent marriage to Fanny Vandergrift Osbourne, whom he met during a trip to France. Despite these challenges, Stevenson found solace in writing and produced some of the most enduring works in English literature. He passed away on December 3, 1894, in Samoa, where he had sought a healthier climate. Robert Louis Stevenson's legacy lives on in his timeless tales, which continue to captivate readers with their adventure, intrigue, and exploration of the complexities of human nature. His works remain classics of both literature and popular culture.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

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

This quote emphasizes the importance of focusing on actions rather than immediate results. It encourages individuals to understand that progress, personal growth, or success is not solely measured by what they accomplish each day, but more so by the efforts and values they sow. In other words, it's about consistently working towards meaningful goals, planting seeds (taking productive steps), trusting in their potential, and letting go of expectations for instant gratification or immediate results. Instead, one should appreciate the process, knowing that eventual growth and success will stem from those planted seeds.


"To travel far is to only travel a little way if you bring back no new understanding."

This quote by Robert Louis Stevenson suggests that while physically traveling to distant places can broaden our horizons, it's the new insights and understandings we gain from these experiences that truly matter. Merely visiting new locations without learning or growing is like only taking a small step in one's journey of life; the real value lies in personal development and self-discovery.


"The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings."

This quote by Robert Louis Stevenson expresses the profound beauty and abundance found in the world around us. He suggests that due to this plenitude, everyone should feel as rich and content as a king or royalty. It is a call to appreciate the simple wonders of life and find happiness in them, rather than seeking material wealth or power.


"Luck is not a constant force but momentary grace, taking the world lightly."

Robert Louis Stevenson's quote emphasizes that luck is a fleeting and temporary blessing rather than a consistent or unyielding power. It suggests that success or good fortune is often a matter of timing or circumstance, rather than something that can be relied upon constantly. The phrase "taking the world lightly" implies an attitude of nonchalance, flexibility, or openness to chance, which may increase one's chances of experiencing such luck. In other words, to maximize our opportunities for good fortune, we should maintain a light and adaptable outlook on life.


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

This quote by Robert Louis Stevenson highlights the joy and essence of traveling itself, rather than focusing on the destination. It suggests that the act of exploring new places, cultures, and experiences, enriches personal growth and understanding, regardless of where one ends up. The journey is the purpose; it's about self-discovery, broadening horizons, and embracing the world around us.


Most of our pocket wisdom is conceived for the use of mediocre people, to discourage them from ambitious attempts, and generally console them in their mediocrity.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Discourage, Use, Conceived, Console

Nothing like a little judicious levity.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Humor, Like, Levity, Judicious

There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Only, Traveler, Lands, Foreign

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

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Inspirational, Harvest, Reap, Each Day

Compromise is the best and cheapest lawyer.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Best, Legal, Cheapest, Compromise

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.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Nature, Beauty, Forest, Hearts

Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Cards, Poor, Holding, Hand

I never weary of great churches. It is my favorite kind of mountain scenery. Mankind was never so happily inspired as when it made a cathedral.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Mankind, Kind, Weary, Churches

There is a fellowship more quiet even than solitude, and which, rightly understood, is solitude made perfect.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Perfect, Which, Even, Understood

The mark of a good action is that it appears inevitable in retrospect.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Action, Inevitable, Appears, Good Action

It is the mark of a good action that it appears inevitable in retrospect.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Good, Action, Inevitable, Good Action

You cannot run away from weakness; you must some time fight it out or perish; and if that be so, why not now, and where you stand?

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Some, Away, Perish, Why Not

It is a golden maxim to cultivate the garden for the nose, and the eyes will take care of themselves.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Gardening, Nose, Take, Garden

Give us grace and strength to forbear and to persevere. Give us courage and gaiety and the quiet mind, spare to us our friends, soften to us our enemies.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Mind, Give, Persevere, Gaiety

There is no progress whatever. Everything is just the same as it was thousands, and tens of thousands, of years ago. The outward form changes. The essence does not change.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Change, Essence, Tens, Thousands Of Years

Every heart that has beat strongly and cheerfully has left a hopeful impulse behind it in the world, and bettered the tradition of mankind.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Inspirational, Cheerfully, Impulse

When I am grown to man's estate I shall be very proud and great. And tell the other girls and boys Not to meddle with my toys.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Proud, Other, Very, Meddle

We must accept life for what it actually is - a challenge to our quality without which we should never know of what stuff we are made, or grow to our full stature.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Grow, Made, Which, Stature

The habit of being happy enables one to be freed, or largely freed, from the domination of outward conditions.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Habit, Domination, Largely, Outward

Marriage is one long conversation, chequered by disputes.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Marriage, Long, Conversation, Disputes

There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy. By being happy we sow anonymous benefits upon the world.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Happy, World, Benefits, Anonymous

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.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Fortune, Private, Perplexed, Frightened

We live in an ascending scale when we live happily, one thing leading to another in an endless series.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Leading, Happily, Series, Ascending

Wine is bottled poetry.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Food, Poetry, Bottled, Wine

Marriage is like life - it is a field of battle, not a bed of roses.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Battle, Bed, Field, Roses

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

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Travel, Go, Move, Affair

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

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Travel, Move, Part, Affair

When it comes to my own turn to lay my weapons down, I shall do so with thankfulness and fatigue, and whatever be my destiny afterward, I shall be glad to lie down with my fathers in honor. It is human at least, if not divine.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Destiny, Own, Fathers, Weapons

Absences are a good influence in love and keep it bright and delicate.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Love, Relationship, Delicate, Absences

The body is a house of many windows: there we all sit, showing ourselves and crying on the passers-by to come and love us.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Love, Body, Come, Sit

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