“You could read Kant by yourself, if you wanted; but you must share a joke with someone else.”

— Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque, Ch. 1, 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.”

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

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

“Stupid people, people who do not know how to laugh, are always pompous and self-conceited.”

“The older I grow, the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.”

“If a man could half his wishes he would double his troubles.”

“It was for this that I've been training myself, it was for this that I was practising.”

“For freedom is not acquired by satisfying yourself with what you desire, but by destroying your desire.”

“Ask yourself at every moment, "Is this necessary?"”