But even if we take matrimony at its lowest, even if we regard it as no more than a sort of friendship recognised by the police, there must be degrees in the freedom and sympathy realised, and some principle to guide simple folk in their selection.
Robert Louis StevensonOur affections and beliefs are wiser than we; the best that is in us is better than we can understand; for it is grounded beyond experience, and guides us, blindfold but safe, from one age on to another.
Robert Louis StevensonHope looks for unqualified success; but Faith counts certainly on failure, and takes honorable defeat to be a form of victory.
Robert Louis StevensonTo avoid an occasion for our virtues is a worse degree of failure than to push forward pluckily and make a fall.
Robert Louis StevensonNo human being ever spoke of scenery for above two minutes at a time, which makes me suspect that we hear too much of it in literature.
Robert Louis StevensonNight is a dead monotonous period under a roof; but in the open world it passes lightly, with its stars and dews and perfumes, and the hours are marked by changes in the face of Nature. What seems a kind of temporal death to people choked between walls and curtains, is only a light and living slumber to the man who sleeps afield.
Robert Louis Stevenson