Our business in life is not to succeed, but to continue to fail in good spirits.
Robert Louis StevensonRead
The mark of a Scot of all classes [is that] he ... remembers and cherishes the memory of his forebears, good or bad; and there burns alive in him a sense of identity with the dead even to the twentieth generation.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the importance of remembering one's ancestors as a core part of personal identity.
Robert Louis Stevenson emphasizes the deep-seated cultural identity that Scots maintain through remembrance of their ancestors. This connection to forebears, regardless of their deeds, fosters a sense of belonging and continuity, which influences the values and identity of individuals across generations.
Themes
IdentityAncestorsMemoryHeritageBelonging
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about cultural identity, one might say, 'As Robert Louis Stevenson noted, we must cherish our forebears to understand who we are today.'
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
Similar quotes
I am trying to make my accent so it won't bother anyone, but I am not going to drive myself crazy trying to pretend I am an American girl when I am from Colombia.
ShakiraRead
I have two passports because I have to have at least one, and I really don't know how I define myself. And I feel that as I get older, I feel very fortunate to have, on paper, a dual nationality.
Jhumpa LahiriRead
The American society around me looked at me and saw Japanese. Then, when I was 19, I went to Japan for the first time. And suddenly - what a shock - I realized I wasn't Japanese; they saw me as American. It was an enormous relief. Now I just appreciate being exactly in the middle.
Ruth OzekiRead
I'm Colombian and nothing will change that.
ShakiraRead
There is something missing in Asian America. They're missing people to tell them, 'It's okay to be who you are - you belong. Just be unapologetically you; you're not less than anybody else.'
Simu LiuRead
It was very hard for me, for most of my life, to feel American, or call myself American, and that is a very complicated topic that would require a very long conversation.
Jhumpa LahiriRead