It is one of the worst things of sentiment that the voice grows to be more important than the words, and the speaker than that what is spoken.
Robert Louis StevensonDogs live with man as courtiers 'round a monarch, steeped in the flattery of his notice ... to push their favor in this world of pickings and caresses is, perhaps, the business of their lives.
Robert Louis StevensonAll speech, written or spoken, is a dead language, until it finds a willing and prepared hearer.
Robert Louis StevensonI am in the habit of looking not so much to the nature of a gift as to the spirit in which it is offered.
Robert Louis Stevenson