Our business in life is not to succeed, but to continue to fail in good spirits.
If you keep on drinking rum, the world will soon be quit of a very dirty scoundrel!
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that excessive drinking leads to negative consequences, humorously implying that a troublesome person will disappear.
In this quote, Robert Louis Stevenson uses humor to address the detrimental effects of alcohol consumption, implying that a person who indulges excessively in drinking rum is likely to cause trouble and may ultimately lead to their own downfall. The phrase humorously points out that the world would benefit from such a person's absence, reflecting a lighthearted yet serious commentary on the dangers of alcoholism.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the impacts of alcohol on society, this quote could serve as a witty illustration of how excessive drinking affects individuals.
More from Robert Louis Stevenson
All quotes βLike a bird singing in the rain, let grateful memories survive in time of sorrow.
That man is a success who has lived well, laughed often and loved much.
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.
The habit of being happy enables one to be freed, or largely freed, from the domination of outward conditions.
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.
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Conceit causes more conversation than wit.
Secretly we're all a little more absurd than we make ourselves out to be.
I would not want to live if I could not perform. It's in my will. I am not to be revived unless I can do an hour of stand-up.
No man goes before his time - unless the boss leaves early.
I think if you come from a history of persecution you have to develop a sense of humour.
There are many times when a woman will ask another girl friend how she likes her new hat. She will reply, 'Fine,' but slap her hand to her forehead the minute the girl leaves to yipe, 'What a horror!'