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Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson Quotes

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Famous Robert Louis Stevenson Quotes

“We sail in leaky bottoms and on great and perilous waters; and to take a cue from the dolorous old naval ballad, we have heard the mer-maidens singing, and know that we shall never see dry land any more. Old and young, we are all on our last cruise. If there is a fill of tobacco among the crew, for God's sake pass it round, and let us have a pipe before we go!”

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Book:Virginibus Puerisque
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“Non mi piace fare troppe domande, ti fanno pensare al giorno del giudizio universale. Porre una domanda è come mettere in moto una pietra: te ne stai tranquillo e beato sulla sommità di un colle e la pietra comincia a rotolare trascinando con sé altri detriti, e tutto ad un tratto un buon vecchietto, l'ultima persona al mondo cui avresti pensato, si busca un colpo sulla zucca mentre vanga il suo orticello e così la sua famiglia è costretta a cambiar nome [...]”

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Book:Lo strano caso del dottore Jekyll e del signor Hyde - Il trafugatore di salme - Un capitolo sui sogni
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“I'm cap'n here by 'lection. I'm cap'n here because I'm the best man by a long sea-mile. You won't fight, as gentlemen o' fortune should; then, by thunder, you'll obey, and you may lay to it! I like that boy, now; I never seen a better boy than that. He's more a man than any pair of rats of you in this here house, and what I say is this: let me see him that'll lay a hand on him--that's what I say, and you may lay to it.”

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Book:Treasure Island
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“As I was waiting, a man came out of a side room, and at a glance I was sure he must be Long John. His left leg was cut off close by the hip, and under the left shoulder he carried a crutch, which he managed with wonderful dexterity, hopping about upon it like a bird. He was very tall and strong, with a face as big as a ham—plain and pale, but intelligent and smiling. Indeed, he seemed in the most cheerful spirits, whistling as he moved about among the tables, with a merry word or a slap on the shoulder for the more favoured of his guests.”

Long John Silver
Book:Treasure Island
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“The ship was bound for the Carolinas; and you must not suppose that I was going to that place merely as an exile. The trade was even then much depressed; since that, and with the rebellion of the colonies and the formation of the United States, it has, of course, come to an end; but in those days of my youth, white men were still sold into slavery on the plantations, and that was the destiny to which my wicked uncle had condemned me.”

Slavery In The United States
Book:Kidnapped : memoirs of the adventures of David Balfour in the year 1751, written by himself and now set forth / by Robert Louis Stevenson. 1935 [Leather Bound]
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“I crossed the yard, wherein the constellations looked down upon me, I could have thought, with wonder, the first creature of that sort that their unsleeping vigilance had yet disclosed to them; I stole through the corridors, a stranger in my own house; and coming to my room, I saw for the first time the appearance of Edward Hyde.”

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Book:The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
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“Esta es una época de servicios y les voy a mostrar el más perfecto que existe. Tenemos intereses en diferentes lugares y, en consecuencia, se inventaron los trenes. Los trenes nos separan, como es natural, de nuestros amigos, y se crearon los telégrafos a fin de comunicarnos rápido y a gran distancia. Hasta los hoteles disponen ahora de ascensores para ahorrarnos subir algunos cientos de escalones. Todos sabemos que la vida es el teatro en que hacemos de bufón mientras nos entretenga el papel. Faltaba un servicio más a la comodidad moderna: una manera fácil y decente de salir de escena, una escalera trasera a la libertad o, como dije antes, una puerta secreta de la muerte. Esto, compañeros míos de rebelión, es lo que ofrece el Club de los Suicidas.”

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Book:New Arabian Nights
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“The happiest lot on earth is to be born a Scotchman. You must pay for it in many ways, as for all other advantages on earth. You have to learn the paraphrases and the shorter catechism; you generally take to drink; your youth is a time of louder war against society, of more outcry and tears and turmoil, than if you had been born, for instance, in England. But somehow life is warmer and closer; the hearth burns more redly; the lights of home shine softer on the rainy street; the very names, endeared in verse and music, cling nearer round our hearts.”

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Book:The Silverado Squatters
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“The influenza has busted me a good deal; I have no spring; and am headachy. So as my good Red Lion Counter begged me for another Butcher's Boy--I turned me to- what thinkest 'ou--to Tushery, by the mass! Ay, friend, a whole tale of tushery. And every tusher tushes me so free, that may I be tushed if the whole thing is worth a tush. The Black Arrow: A Tale of Tunstall Forest is his name: tush! a poor thing!”

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Author:Robert Louis Stevenson
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“Men have before hired bravos to transact their crimes, while their own person and reputation sat under shelter. I was the first that ever did so for his pleasure. I was the first that could plod in the public eye with a load of genial respectability, and in a moment, like a schoolboy, strip off these lendings and spring headlong into the sea of liberty.”

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Book:The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde / Juggernaut
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“Zła cząstka natury, wyzwolona obecnie i sprawująca władzę była cieleśnie słabsza i gorzej rozwinięta niż dobra, którą odtrąciłem. Zarazem jednak mniej utrudziła się i wyczerpała, gdyż dotychczas dziewięć dziesiątych życia poświęcałem przecież pracy, cnocie i świadomemu, poddanemu rygorom obowiązku działaniu. Dlatego właśnie Edward Hyde był znacznie niższy, szczuplejszy i młodszy niż Henryk Jekyll. Jedną twarz rozjaśniał blask wewnętrznego światła, na drugiej mroki zła wyryły głębokie piętno. Ponadto zło (mimo wszystko słabsze w człowieku niż dobro) zniekształciło i jak gdyby okaleczyło całą postać swojego wcielenia.”

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Book:Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
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“Certainly, if money could have been raised upon the book, Robert Herrick would long ago have sacrificed that last possession: but the demand for literature, which is so marked a feature in some parts of the South Seas, extends not so far as the dead tongues; and the Virgil, which he could not exchange against a meal had often consoled him in his hunger. He would study it, as he lay with tightened belt on the floor of the old calaboose, seeking favourite passages and finding new ones only less beautiful because they lacked the consecration of remembrance. The Ebb-Tide”

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Author:Robert Louis Stevenson
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“Literature, although it stands apart by reason of the great destiny and general use of its medium in the affairs of men, is yet an art like other arts. Of these we may distinguish two great classes: those arts, like sculpture, painting, acting, which are representative, or as used to be said very clumsily, imitative; and those, like architecture, music, and the dance, which are self-sufficient, and merely presentative.”

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Author:Robert Louis Stevenson
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