New Arabian Nights

“Although I express myself with some degree of pleasantry, the purport of my words is entirely serious.””

— Robert Louis Stevenson

“Curiosity and timidity fought a long battle in his heart.””

— Robert Louis Stevenson

“The horror with which blind and unjust law regards an action never attaches to the doer in the eyes of those who love him.””

— Robert Louis Stevenson

“We have affairs in different places; and hence railways were invented. Railways separated us infallibly from our friends; and so telegraphs were made that we might communicate speedier at great distances.””

— Robert Louis Stevenson

“When a man is in a fair way and sees all life open in front of him, he seems to himself to make a very important figure in the world. His horse whinnies to him; the trumpets blow and the girls look out of windows as he rides into town before his company; he receives many assurances of trust and regard - sometimes by express in a letter - sometimes face to face, with persons of great consequence falling on his neck. It is not wonderful if his head is turned for a time. But once he is dead, were he as brave as Hercules or as wise as Solomon, he is soon forgotten. It is not ten years since my father fell, with many other knights around him, in a very fierce encounter, and I do not think that any of them, nor so much as the name of the fight, is now remembered. No, no, madam, the nearer you come to it, you see that death is a dark and dusty corner, where a man gets into his tomb and has the door shut after him till the judgment day. I have a few friends just now, and once I am dead I shall have none.””

— Robert Louis Stevenson

“Esta es una época de servicios y les voy a mostrar el más perfecto que existe. Tenemos intereses en diferentes lugares y, en consecuencia, se inventaron los trenes. Los trenes nos separan, como es natural, de nuestros amigos, y se crearon los telégrafos a fin de comunicarnos rápido y a gran distancia. Hasta los hoteles disponen ahora de ascensores para ahorrarnos subir algunos cientos de escalones. Todos sabemos que la vida es el teatro en que hacemos de bufón mientras nos entretenga el papel. Faltaba un servicio más a la comodidad moderna: una manera fácil y decente de salir de escena, una escalera trasera a la libertad o, como dije antes, una puerta secreta de la muerte. Esto, compañeros míos de rebelión, es lo que ofrece el Club de los Suicidas.””

— Robert Louis Stevenson