Our business in life is not to succeed, but to continue to fail in good spirits.
Robert Louis StevensonRead
If they only married when they fell in love, most people would die unwed.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that love is not the only reason to marry, and many would remain single if that were the case.
Robert Louis Stevenson highlights the complexity of love and relationships by implying that romantic love is often not the sole basis for marriage. Many individuals may marry for reasons beyond love, such as companionship, social expectations, or stability, which means that if love were the only criteria, a large number of people might remain unmarried throughout their lives.
Themes
LoveMarriageRelationshipsCompanionshipRomance
In practice
Example use cases
This quote would be perfect for a discussion on the reasons people choose to marry in a sociology class.
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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