174 quotes
The cruelest lies are often told in silence.
Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers (1881)
It is the mark of a modest man to accept his friendly circle ready-made from the hands of opportunity.
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886)
A woman can earn her pardon for a good year of disobedience by a single adroit submission.
The New Arabian Nights (1882)
Decisive actions are often taken in a moment and without any conscious deliverance from the rational parts of man.
The New Arabian Nights (1882)
Perpetual devotion to what a man calls his business, is only to be sustained by perpetual neglect of many other things.
Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers (1881)
The body is a house of many windows: there we all sit, showing ourselves and crying on the passers-by to come and love us.
Children, you are very little,
And your bones are very brittle.
A Child's Garden of Verses (1885)
When we take our advantage unrelentingly, then we make war.
The Master of Ballantrae (1889)
Is there anything in life so disenchanting as attainment?
The New Arabian Nights (1882)
We must go on, because we can't turn back.
Treasure Island (1883)
Anybody can write a short story—a bad one, I mean—who has industry and paper and time enough; but not everyone may hope to write even a bad novel. It is the length that kills.
Robert Louis (1894)
To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour.
In winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.
A Child's Garden of Verses (1885)
A faculty for idleness implies a catholic appetite and a strong sense of personal identity.
Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers (1881)
A woman loves to be obeyed at first, although afterwards she finds her pleasure in obeying.
The New Arabian Nights (1882)
A man must not deny his manifest abilities, for that is to evade his obligations.
To be overwise is to ossify; and the scruple-monger ends by standing stockstill.
Aes Triplex (1878)
The devil, depend upon it, can sometimes do a very gentlemanly thing.
The New Arabian Nights (1882)
It is one thing to mortify curiosity, another to conquer it.
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886)
The imagination loves to trifle with what is not.
The Silverado Squatters (1883)