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
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