174 quotes
Absences are a good influence in love and keep it bright and delicate.
Virginibus Puerisque (1881)
They say cowardice is infectious; but then argument is, on the other hand, a great emboldener.
Treasure Island (1883)
You could read Kant by yourself, if you wanted; but you must share a joke with someone else.
Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers (1881)
Thus in the best fabric of duplicity, there is some weak point, if you can strike it, which will loosen all.
The Master of Ballantrae (1889)
Gentleness and cheerfulness, these come before all morality; they are the perfect duties.
Across the Plains (1892)
But the more he is alone with nature, the greater man and his doings bulk in the consideration of his fellow-men.
The Silverado Squatters (1883)
This is still the strangest thing in all man's travelling, that he should carry about with him incongruous memories.
The Silverado Squatters (1883)
Those that have the underhand in any fighting, I have observed, are ever anxious to persuade themselves they were betrayed.
The Master of Ballantrae (1889)
Here lies one who meant well, tried a little, failed much: — surely that may be his epitaph of which he need not be ashamed.
Across the Plains (1892)
All human beings, as we meet them, are commingled out of good and evil.
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886)
And perhaps this habit of much travel, and the engendering of scattered friendships, may prepare the euthanasia of ancient nations.
The Silverado Squatters (1883)
Every one lives by selling something, whatever be his right to it.
To know what you prefer, instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive.
An Inland Voyage (1878)
I regard you with an indifference closely bordering on aversion.
The New Arabian Nights (1882)
Vanity dies hard; in some obstinate cases it outlives the man.
Let anyone speak long enough, he will get believers.
The Master of Ballantrae (1889)
Age may have one side, but assuredly Youth has the other. There is nothing more certain than that both are right, except perhaps that both are wrong.
Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers (1881)
Pieces of eight, pieces of eight, pieces of eight!
Treasure Island (1883)
You can't touch pitch and not be mucked, lad.
Treasure Island (1883)
The commonplaces are the great poetic truths.
Weir of Hermiston (1896)