One of the Most Translated Authors in the World
He wrote one of the most famous adventure stories in history
Born and educated in Edinburg during the Victorian era, he suffered most of his life with bronchial issues. Despite his poor health, he traveled widely and wrote prolifically. In 1890 at the age of 40, he settled in Samoa where he spent the final years of his life.
In Samoa, he purchased land and took the native name of Tusitala, Samoan for “Teller of Tales.” He became a revered member of the community. In his final years, his health continued to decline.
One of the most translated authors in the world, he wrote a considerable number of novels as well as many short stories. When he was only 16, he published his first book and continued to be widely published throughout his life.
A Scottish novelist, poet, and travel writer, his most notable works were Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and A Child’s Garden of Verses. It is estimated that half of his original manuscripts are lost. Treasure Island has become one of the most famous adventure stories in all of English literature.
Born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson in 1850 in Edinburgh, Scotland, he died of a suspected brain hemorrhage in Samoa in 1894 at the young age of 44 years old. Although his life was short, he enriched the world with his many works. Let’s look at some of his most cherished words.
Travel
“I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.”
“To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive.”
“We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend.”
Wit
“If he be Mr. Hyde” he had thought, “I shall be Mr. Seek.”
“Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary.”
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“Man is a creature who lives not upon bread alone, but primarily by catchwords.”
“It is perhaps a more fortunate destiny to have a taste for collecting shells than to be born a millionaire.”
Inspiration
“Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well.”
“To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life.”
“Keep your eyes open to your mercies. The man who forgets to be thankful has fallen asleep in life.”
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“The bold may not live long, but the timid never live at all.”
“Make the most of the best and the least of the worst.”
“We should strive to go on in fortune and misfortune like a clock during a thunderstorm.”
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“In each of us, two natures are at war — the good and the evil. All our lives the fight goes on between them, and one of them must conquer. But in our own hands lies the power to choose — what we want most to be we are.”
Wisdom
“I kept always two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in.”
“You can give without loving, but you can never love without giving.”
“Compromise is the best and cheapest lawyer.”
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“Vanity dies hard; in some obstinate cases it outlives the man.”
“If your morals make you dreary, depend on it, they are wrong.”
“A bottle of good wine, like a good act, shines ever in the retrospect.”
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“Every one lives by selling something, whatever be his right to it.”
“The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean; not to affect your reader, but to affect him precisely as you wish.”
“Every man has a sane spot somewhere.”
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“Perpetual devotion to what a man calls his business is only to be sustained by perpetual neglect of many other things.”
“It is a golden maxim to cultivate the garden for the nose, and the eyes will take care of themselves.”
“The cruelest lies are often told in silence.”
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“There are two things that men should never weary of, goodness and humility; we get none too much of them in this rough world among cold, proud people.”
“This profusion of eccentricities, this dream in masonry and living rock is not a drop scene in a theatre, but a city in the world of reality.”
Success
“I consider the success of my day based on the seeds I sow, not the harvest I reap.”
“Do not measure success by today’s harvest. Measure success by the seeds you plant today.”
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“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”
“Our business in life is not to succeed, but to continue to fail in good spirits.”
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“The man is a success who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much; who has gained the respect of intelligent men and the love of children; who has filled his niche and accomplished his task; who leaves the world better than he found it, whether by an improved poppy, a perfect poem, or a rescued soul; who never lacked appreciation of earth’s beauty or failed to express it; who looked for the best in others and gave the best he had.”
Life
“There is only one difference between a long life and a good dinner: that, in the dinner, the sweets come last.”
“Sooner or later everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences.”
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“A friend is a gift you give yourself.”
“Like a bird singing in the rain, let grateful memories survive in time of sorrow.”
Happiness
“Make up your mind to be happy. Learn to find pleasure in simple “things.
“There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy. By being happy we sow anonymous benefits upon the world.”
“Keep busy at something: a busy person never has time to be unhappy.”
Spirituality
“The saints are the sinners who keep on trying.”
“It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men’s hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.”
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“You think dogs will not be in heaven? I tell you, they will be there long before any of us.”
“Loving God, help us remember the birth of Jesus, that we may share in the song of the angels, the gladness of the shepherds, and the worship of the wise men.”
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“There is nothing but God’s grace. We walk upon it; we breathe it; we live and die by it; it makes the nails and axles of the universe.”
“To know what you prefer instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive.”
“There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.”
If you wish to read more of Stevenson’s engaging and wonderful writing, you will find much of it in the public domain at Wikisource.org. May you accept this final quote as both a prayer and a blessing to you.
“Give us grace and strength to forbear and to persevere. Give us courage and gaiety, and the quiet mind. Spare to us our friends, soften to us our enemies. Bless us, if it may be, in all our innocent endeavours. If it may not, give us the strength to encounter that which is to come, that we may be brave in peril, constant in tribulation, temparate in wrath, and in all changes of fortune, and down to the gates of death, loyal and loving to one another.”
Bill Abbate Leadership Writer and Editor in ILLUMINATION.
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