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For God's sake give me the young man who has brains enough to make a fool of himself! As for the others, the irony of facts shall take it out of their hands, and make fools of them in downright earnest, ere the farce be over.

— Robert Louis Stevenson Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers (1881)

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Youth

More quotes by Robert Louis Stevenson

The true wisdom is to be always seasonable, and to change with a good grace in changing circumstances.

Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers (1881)

In every part and corner of our life, to lose oneself is to be a gainer; to forget oneself is to be happy.

Old Mortality (1884)

Books are good enough in their own way, but they are a mighty bloodless substitute for life.

Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers (1881)

To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life.

Familiar Studies of Men and Books (1882)

Our business in this world is not to succeed, but to continue to fail, in good spirits.

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Whoso neglects learning in his youth, loses the past and is dead for the future.

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The young leading the young, is like the blind leading the blind; “they will both fall into the ditch.”

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Robert Louis Stevenson (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.