Our business in life is not to succeed, but to continue to fail in good spirits.
Robert Louis StevensonRead
-I am not sure whether he's sane. -If there's any doubt about the matter, he is.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Doubt about someone's sanity often indicates their rationality.
This quote by Robert Louis Stevenson suggests that uncertainty regarding a person's sanity can often be a sign of their soundness of mind. It implies that true madness would not lead to self-doubt, and those who question their own sanity may actually possess a greater level of introspection and awareness.
Themes
SanityDoubtRationalityIntrospectionMind
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion on mental health, this quote can highlight the importance of questioning one's own state of mind.
More from Robert Louis Stevenson
All quotes βLike 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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