Our business in life is not to succeed, but to continue to fail in good spirits.
Robert Louis StevensonRead
I kept always two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the importance of reading and writing in personal growth and knowledge acquisition.
Robert Louis Stevenson highlights the dual importance of consuming knowledge through reading and expressing oneself through writing. By keeping both a book for reading and one for writing in his pocket, he symbolizes the balance between learning and creativity, suggesting that both are essential for a fulfilling intellectual life.
Themes
ReadingWritingKnowledgeEducationGrowth
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about lifelong learning, I would use this quote to illustrate the importance of continued education.
More from Robert Louis Stevenson
All quotes βLike a bird singing in the rain, let grateful memories survive in time of sorrow.
Robert Louis StevensonRead
That man is a success who has lived well, laughed often and loved much.
Robert Louis StevensonRead
His past was fairly blameless; few men could read the rolls of their life with less apprehension; yet he was humbled to the dust by the many ill things he had done, and raised up again into sober and fearful gratitude by the many he had come so near to doing, yet avoided.
Robert Louis StevensonRead
The habit of being happy enables one to be freed, or largely freed, from the domination of outward conditions.
Robert Louis StevensonRead
It is the history of our kindnesses that alone make this world tolerable. If it were not for that, for the effect of kind words, kind looks, kind letters . . . I should be inclined to think our life a practical jest in the worst possible spirit.
Robert Louis StevensonRead
Similar quotes
A book is completed only when it is finished by a reader.
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The child is endowed with unknown powers, which can guide us to a radiant future. If what we really want is a new world, then education must take as its aim the development of these hidden possibilities.
Maria MontessoriRead
Universities think people come up with great ideas by closing the door. The academic tenure process, where you have to publish to journals which are very narrow, stands in the way of great research.
Clayton M. ChristensenRead
Books are not about passing time. They're about other lives. Other worlds. Far from wanting time to pass, one just wishes one had more of it. If one wanted to pass the time one could go to New Zealand.
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Every film teaches you something; every experience on every film set with every co-star teaches you something. You learn something new. I think the challenge is to keep working harder and doing better.
Deepika PadukoneRead
I think that the reader should enrich what he is reading. He should misunderstand the text; he should change it into something else.
Jorge Luis BorgesRead