Our business in life is not to succeed, but to continue to fail in good spirits.
Robert Louis StevensonRead
When it comes to my own turn to lay my weapons down, I shall do so with thankfulness and fatigue, and whatever be my destiny afterward, I shall be glad to lie down with my fathers in honor. It is human at least, if not divine.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects a sense of acceptance and gratitude for one's life and legacy as one approaches the end of their journey.
In this quote, Robert Louis Stevenson expresses a profound acknowledgment of mortality and the emotions that accompany the end of life. He articulates a readiness to surrender, feeling gratitude for life's experiences and an honor in joining ancestors. This acceptance can be seen as a human trait that acknowledges both the inevitability of death and the potential for peace in embracing it.
Themes
MortalityGratitudeLegacyHonorDestiny
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a eulogy to celebrate someone's life and their contributions to others.
More from Robert Louis Stevenson
All quotes →Like a bird singing in the rain, let grateful memories survive in time of sorrow.
Robert Louis StevensonRead
That man is a success who has lived well, laughed often and loved much.
Robert Louis StevensonRead
His past was fairly blameless; few men could read the rolls of their life with less apprehension; yet he was humbled to the dust by the many ill things he had done, and raised up again into sober and fearful gratitude by the many he had come so near to doing, yet avoided.
Robert Louis StevensonRead
The habit of being happy enables one to be freed, or largely freed, from the domination of outward conditions.
Robert Louis StevensonRead
It is the history of our kindnesses that alone make this world tolerable. If it were not for that, for the effect of kind words, kind looks, kind letters . . . I should be inclined to think our life a practical jest in the worst possible spirit.
Robert Louis StevensonRead
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