174 quotes
A good conscience is eight parts of courage.
Sight-seeing is the art of disappointment.
The Silverado Squatters (1883)
I've a grand memory for forgetting, David.
Kidnapped (1886)
All error, not merely verbal, is a strong way of stating that the current truth is incomplete.
Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers (1881)
A happy man or woman is a better thing to find than a five-pound note.
Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers (1881)
Most of our pocket wisdom is conceived for the use of mediocre people, to discourage them from ambitious attempts, and generally console them in their mediocrity.
Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers (1881)
The untented Kosmos my abode,
I pass, a wilful stranger:
My mistress still the open road
And the bright eyes of danger.
Songs of Travel and Other Verses (1896)
For there is a fellowship more quiet even than solitude, and which, rightly understood, is solitude made perfect.
Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes (1878)
Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary.
In many ways an artistic nature unfits a man for practical existence.
The New Arabian Nights (1882)
Let first the onion flourish there,
Rose among roots, the maiden-fair,
Wine-scented and poetic soul
Of the capacious salad bowl.
Underwoods (1887)
It is a mere illusion that, above a certain income, the personal desires will be satisfied and leave a wider margin for the generous impulse.
Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm.
Marriage is one long conversation, chequered by disputes.
To be idle requires a strong sense of personal identity.
If a man loves the labour of his trade, apart from any question of success or fame, the gods have called him.
To equip a dull, respectable person with wings would be but to make a parody of an angel.
Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers (1881)
Each side, in these sort of civil broils, takes the name of honesty for its own.
Kidnapped (1886)
There is a strong feeling in favour of cowardly and prudential proverbs.
Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers (1881)
Fifteen men on the dead man's chest —
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!
Drink and the devil had done for the rest —
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!
Treasure Island (1883)