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

— Robert Louis Stevenson, "An Apology for Idlers", Virginibus Puerisque (1881)

About Robert Louis Stevenson

1850 – 1894

Scottish novelist and essayist, author of "Treasure Island" and "Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde".

“To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour.”

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

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

“Without music, life would be a mistake.”

“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”

“Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience.”

“A man will turn over half a library to make one book.”

“Master books, but do not let them master you. Read to live, not live to read.”