Our business in life is not to succeed, but to continue to fail in good spirits.
Robert Louis StevensonRead
There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that it is not places that are foreign, but rather the perspective of the traveler that makes them feel unfamiliar.
Robert Louis Stevenson implies that the experience of traveling is subjective. It's the mindset of the traveler that causes them to perceive places as foreign; therefore, the connection to the land is universal, while feelings of strangeness originate from one's own outlook and experiences.
Themes
TravelPerspectiveForeignExperienceMindsetExploration
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about embracing diversity in cultures, this quote can highlight the importance of open-mindedness.
More from Robert Louis Stevenson
All quotes →Like 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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