“If your morals make you dreary, depend upon it they are wrong. I do not say "give them up," for they may be all you have; but conceal them like a vice, lest they should spoil the lives of better and simpler people.”

— Robert Louis Stevenson, book Across the Plains

Source: Across the Plains (1892), Ch. XII, A Christmas Sermon.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "If your morals make you dreary, depend upon it they are wrong. I do not say "give them up," for they may be all you hav…" by Robert Louis Stevenson?

Robert Louis Stevenson photo

Robert Louis Stevenson118

Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer 1850–1894

Related quotes

“The first duty towards children is to make them happy. If you have not made them so, you have wronged them. No other good they may get can make up for that.”

Charles Buxton (1823–1871) English brewer, philanthropist, writer and politician

Source: Notes of Thought (1883), p. 147

“Beware of knowing your virtues; you may lose them. Beware of knowing your vices; you may forgive them.”

James Richardson (1950) American poet

#166
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten Second Essays (2001)

“This is my life. No one has the right to tell me how to live it or to question what I do. When you grow up, you will make your own choices. It will be your life and you it your way. I will never interfere. It must be awful for these people to have such boring lives that all they can do make them interesting is to talk about somebody else’s life. I am glad I provided with them with timepass conversation.”

Protima Bedi (1948–1998) Indian model and dancer

In reply to her daughter when she had streaked and her daughter who was five years old was upset knowing about to in the school when she was told that her mother :’All the children in my school say that their mummies said that you ran nanga’ (‘nanga’ in Hindi means “naked”) in "Timepass" pp. viii-ix

“I think that I say those things that make people so angry, not because I really mean them, but because I simply thought of a clever way to say them. It's a kind of art, to think of the perfect way to say an idea, and when you think of it then you have to say it, because words don't exist until you say them."
"A pretty feeble kind of art, Nyef, and I say you should give it up before it gets you killed.”

Orson Scott Card (1951) American science fiction novelist

Homecoming saga, The Memory Of Earth (1992)

“Think how much better it is to criticize conventional customs if you yourself live up to them, scrupulously. Then people can't say you're attacking them to excuse your own infractions. Yes, I've heard that plea…. To word it differently, 'You must live up to the popular code if you believe in it; but if you don't believe in it, then you must live up to it!”

Sinclair Lewis book Main Street

Main Street (1920)

“When you represent in your work shadows which you can only discern with difficulty, and of which you cannot distinguish the edges so that you apprehend them confusedly, you must not make them sharp or definite lest your work should have a wooden effect.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), IV Perspective of Disappearance

“There is no one at the Communion table who retains against you even the least of your sins, no one, unless you yourself do it. So cast them away from yourself, and the recollection of them, lest in it your retain them; and cast the recollection of your having cast your sins away, lest in it you retain them. P. 170”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

1850s, Two Discourses at Friday Communion (August 1851)

“The words in this book are all phooey. When you say them, your lips will make slips and back flips and your tongue may end up in Saint Looey!”

Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books

“Separate wealth from value. All living things have value. We impart this value upon lifeless things to give them worth not vice versa.”

Lupe Fiasco (1982) rapper

Rules 2 Rule

“Ishabal: "If you may correct your vision as you like, why do you wear spectacles?"
Tris: "Because I like them. Because I have better things to do with my magic than fixing my vision when ordinary glass will do.”

Tamora Pierce book The Will of the Empress

Source: The Will of the Empress

Related topics