R L Stevenson Quotes & Sayings

I did know Ted Hughes and I partly wrote the book to explain to myself and others the complexities of a marriage that was for six years wonderfully productive of poetry and then ended in tragedy. — Anne Stevenson

Extreme busyness, whether at school or college, kirk or market, is a symptom of deficient vitality. — Robert Louis Stevenson

When I was in the Army, I read a book by Adlai Stevenson. He said law was as noble as saving a person's life. So at one point, I felt that way too. — William Sanderson

It is better to be a fool than to be dead. It is better to emit a scream in the shape of a theory than to be entirely insensible to the jars and incongruities of life and take everything as it comes in a forlorn stupidity. Some people swallow the universe like a pill; they travel on through the world, like smiling images pushed from behind. For God's sake give me the young man who has brains enough to make a fool of himself! — Robert Louis Stevenson

In the garden of our house, when I was three. My brothers and I had a jumping wall. I remember it as enormously high, but it was probably only about a foot and a half. — Juliet Stevenson

Although I express myself with some degree of pleasantry, the purport of my words is entirely serious. — Robert Louis Stevenson

Old and young, we are all on our last cruise. — Robert Louis Stevenson

We were a mess, but we were a fucking beautiful mess. — Beckie Stevenson

I think a poet, like a painter, should be a craftsperson. — Anne Stevenson

A man met a lad weeping. "What do you weep for?" he asked. "I am weeping for my sins," said the lad. "You must have little to do," said the man. The next day, they met again. Once more the lad was weeping. "Why do you weep now?" asked the man. "I am weeping because I have nothing to eat," said the lad. "I thought it would come to that," said the man. — Robert Louis Stevenson

I used to a lot. I used to go dancing. — Parker Stevenson

In Alabama, even though 65 percent of all homicide victims were black, nearly 80 percent of the people on death row were there for crimes against victims who were white. — Bryan Stevenson

Alas! in the clothes of the greatest potentate, what is there but a man? — Robert Louis Stevenson

Now listen," said Daniel gravely. "Just you listen to me and I'll tell you something worth remembering. When we're young we make our beds and when we're older we have to lie on them. I'd make myself a comfortable bed if I were you - straight and tidy with the blankets well tucked in at the foot - then it'll not come adrift when you lie in it. If a bed's not properly made at the start the blankets'll maybe fall off in the night and you'll wake up shivering." He nodded to Duggie in a friendly manner and away he went with his dog bounding gracefully beside him. Duggie watched him until he disappeared. Daniel — D.E. Stevenson

There is no progress whatever. Everything is just the same as it was thousands, and tens of thousands, of years ago. The outward form changes. The essence does not change. — Robert Louis Stevenson

Your days are short here; this is the last of your springs. And now in the serenity and quiet of this lovely place, touch the depths of truth, feel the hem of Heaven. You will go away with old, good friends. And don't forget when you leave why you came. — Adlai E. Stevenson

There is no music like a little river's ... It takes the mind out-of-doors ... and ... it quiets a man down like saying his prayers. — Robert Louis Stevenson

Once again Chile reduces us to what R. L. Stevenson called 'the virginity of senses' where words cannot match the impressions received. — Brian Keenan

I sat in the sun on a bench; the animal within me licking the chops of memory; the spiritual side a little drowsed, promising subsequent penitence, but not yet moved to begin. — Robert Louis Stevenson

When the war ended in 1945, Robert Newton's film career took off. And then he landed the part of Disney's Long John Silver. "What accent do you want me to put on?" he asked Walt, in his natural thick West-country, 'Cornwall/Devon/Dorset' burr. Pointing at his face excitedly, "Why, that one." Disney replied. And THE OFFICIAL PIRATE ACCENT was born. Newton went on to do another Long John Silver film, then a 26 part television series. He died early, aged 50, from chronic alcoholism, just the way a pirate would want to go. But he left the legacy of 'the' pirate accent 'til the end of time. Every pirate 'R' or 'Arrrgh' joke you ever heard, owes its very life to the combination of Robert Newton, R. L. Stevenson, and Walt Disney.
-- Renaissance Festival Survival Guide — Ian Hall

It's a little different being the older guys on the team. We are going to help get the young guys get comfortable. We'll have to get them used to what they will face out there this season. There are some good guys out there. They know what they have to do to win. — Andrew Stevenson

I am painfully situated, Utterson; my position is a very strange--a very strange one. It is one of those affairs that cannot be mended by talking. ~Jekyll — Robert Louis Stevenson

Finally, I've come to believe that the true measure of our commitment to justice, the character of our society, our commitment to the rule of law, fairness, and equality cannot be measured by how we treat the rich, the powerful, the privileged, and the respected among us. The true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the incarcerated, and the condemned. We are all implicated when we allow other people to be mistreated. — Bryan Stevenson

Life itself is pretty funny when you realize how absurd it can be. — Ray Stevenson

She had always suffered from a curious fear of what was going to happen round the next corner. Even when life went smoothly and nothing occurred to justify her vague apprehensions, they did not altogether disperse. She had tried to face these fears and conquer them, but she could never do so entirely, she could only strain forward into the darkness of the future, expecting and fearing the unknown. She was brave in the face of dangers she could see, but she could not arm herself against shadows. These fears were her weakness. — D.E. Stevenson

That is the bitterness of art: you see a good effect, and some nonsense about sense continually intervenes. — Robert Louis Stevenson

Now that Stevenson is dead I can think of but one English- speaking author who is really keeping his self-respect and sticking forperfection. Of course I refer to that mighty master of language and keen student of human actions and motives, Henry James. — Willa Cather

When I suffer in mind, stories are my refuge; I take them like opium; and consider one who writes them as a sort of doctor of the mind. — Robert Louis Stevenson

The weird thing is, in America, people were saying, "You're not going to get recognized because all you're going to see is basically your forehead and eyes." — Ray Stevenson

An Independent is someone who wants to take the politics out of politics. — Adlai E. Stevenson

Elle had gone off in another direction and made him swear to 'whatever twisted deity he believed in' that he wasn't going to follow her. Really made him wonder where the hell she was going. — Sharon Stevenson

To cast in my lot with Jekyll, was to die to those appetites which I had long secretly indulged and had of late begun to pamper. To cast it in with Hyde, was to die to a thousand interests and aspirations, and to become, at a blow and forever, despised and friendless. The bargain might appear unequal; but there was still another consideration in the scales; for while Jekyll would suffer smartingly in the fires of abstinence, Hyde would be not even conscious of all that he had lost. Strange as my circumstances were, the terms of this debate are as old and commonplace as man; much the same inducements and alarms cast the die for any tempted and trembling sinner; and it fell out with me, as it falls with so vast a majority of my fellows, that I chose the better part and was found wanting in the strength to keep to it. — Robert Louis Stevenson

If we take matrimony at it's lowest, we regard it as a sort of friendship recognised by the police. — Robert Louis Stevenson

Captain," said I, — Robert Louis Stevenson