Our business in life is not to succeed, but to continue to fail in good spirits.
Robert Louis StevensonRead
Seaward ho! Hang the treasure! It's the glory of the sea that has turned my head.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the allure and beauty of adventure over material gains.
In this quote, Robert Louis Stevenson expresses a profound appreciation for the thrill and glory that comes from navigating the sea, suggesting that the experience and adventure of sailing hold more value than the material rewards often associated with treasure hunting. It underscores the idea that the journey itself can be more fulfilling than the destination or rewards one might seek.
In practice
In a speech about pursuing passions, one might say, 'As Robert Louis Stevenson said, seaward ho! Hang the treasure! It's the glory of the sea that has turned my head.'
Our business in life is not to succeed, but to continue to fail in good spirits.
Like 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.
But I always liked side-paths, little dark back-alleys behind the main road- there one finds adventures and surprises, and precious metal in the dirt.
I have ever been prone to seek adventure and to investigate and experiment where wiser men would have left well enough alone.
Adventure is the invitation to common people to become uncommon.
Straddling the top of the world, one foot in China and the other in Nepal, I cleared the ice from my oxygen mask, hunched a shoulder against the wind, and stared absently down at the vastness of Tibet.
I wanted real adventures to happen to myself. But real adventures, I reflected, do not happen to people who remain at home: they must be sought abroad.
In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.
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