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Gentleness and cheerfulness, these come before all morality; they are the perfect duties.

— Robert Louis Stevenson Across the Plains (1892)

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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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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.