Kidnapped Quotes

“There are two things that men should never weary of, goodness and humility; we get none too much of them in this rough world among cold, proud people.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped

“Alan," cried I, "what makes ye so good to me? What makes ye care for such a thankless fellow?"

Deed, and I don't, know" said Alan. "For just precisely what I thought I liked about ye, was that ye never quarrelled:—and now I like ye better!”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped

“To be feared of a thing and yet to do it, is what makes the prettiest kind of a man.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped

“I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both; and I believe they both get paid in the end; but the fools first.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped

“Alan,” I cried, “I can stand no more of this.” “Ye’ll have to sit it then, Davie,”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped

“I've a grand memory for forgetting,”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped

“But a word once spoken who can recapture it?”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped

“By what I have read in books, I think few that have held a pen were ever really wearied, or they would write of it more strongly. I had no care of my life, neither past nor future, and I scarce remembered there was such a lad as David Balfour. I did not think of myself, but just of each fresh step which I was sure would be my last, with despair—and of Alan, who was the cause of it, with hatred. Alan was in the right trade as a soldier; this is the officer's part to make men continue to do things, they know not wherefore, and when, if the choice was offered, they would lie down where they were and be killed. And I dare say I would have made a good enough private; for in these last hours it never occurred to me that I had any choice but just to obey as long as I was able, and die obeying.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped

“I often think the happiest consequences seem to follow when a gentelman consults his lawyer, and takes all the law allows him.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped

“It's a chief principle in military affairs to go where ye are least expected.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped

“I cannot tell if I was more tired or more grateful. Both at least, I was: tired as I never was before that night; and grateful to Gd as I trust I have been often, though never with more cause.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped

“Now this was one of the things I had been brought up to eschew like disgrace; it being held by my father neither the part of a Christian nor yet of a gentleman to set his own livelihood and fish for that of others, on the cast of painted pasteboard.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped

“Call up your vermin to your back, sir, and fall on! The sooner the clash begins, the sooner ye'll taste this steel throughout your vitals.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped

“...the narrow arched entries that continually vomited passengers.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped

“At this the last of my anger oozed all out of me; and I found myself only sick, and sorry, and blank, and wondering at myself. I would have given the world to take back what I had said; but a word once spoken, who can recapture it? I minded me of all Alan's kindness and courage in the past, how he had helped and cheered and borne with me in our evil days; and then recalled my own insults, and saw that I had lost for ever that doughty friend. At the same time, the sickness that hung upon me seemed to redouble, and the pang in my side was like a sword for sharpness. I thought I must have swooned where I stood.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped

“But besides that I was of an unforgiving disposition from my birth, slow to take offense, slower to forget it, and now incensed both against my companion and myself.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped

“And yet Alan had behaved like a child, and (what is worse) a treacherous child.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped

“No class of man is altogether bad, but each has its own faults and virtues.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped

“And life is all a variorum, at the best.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped

“O, man, if you would only take one point of the compass and let me take any other, it would be the best for both of us.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped

“He came up to me with open arms. “Come to my arms!” he cried, and embraced and kissed me hard upon both cheeks. “David,” said he, “I love you like a brother. And O, man,” he cried in a kind of ecstasy, “am I no a bonny fighter?”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped

“There's bad folk everywhere, and what's far worse, weak ones.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped

“The inn at Kinlochaline was the most beggarly vile place that ever pigs were styed in, full of smoke, vermin, and silent Highlanders.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped

“-Amigo mío -dije en tono algo burlón-, ¡sois muy ingenioso! Pero ¿no sería más sencillo escribirle unas palabras?

-Esa es una excelente observación, señor Balfour de Shaws -repuso Alan también con chanza-; sería sin duda mucho más sencillo para mí escribirle, pero para John Breck resultaría muy penoso tener que leerlo. Tendría que ir a la escuela durante dos o tres años, y es posible que nos cansásemos de esperarle.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped

“I would have given the world to take back what I had said; but a word once spoken, who can recapture it?”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped

“rowpit!”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped

“The ship was bound for the Carolinas; and you must not suppose that I was going to that place merely as an exile. The trade was even then much depressed; since that, and with the rebellion of the colonies and the formation of the United States, it has, of course, come to an end; but in those days of my youth, white men were still sold into slavery on the plantations, and that was the destiny to which my wicked uncle had condemned me.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped : memoirs of the adventures of David Balfour in the year 1751, written by himself and now set forth / by Robert Louis Stevenson. 1935 [Leather Bound]

“ye have a fine, hang-dog, rag-and-tatter, clappermaclaw kind of a look to ye, as if ye had stolen the coat from a potato-bogle.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped

“Ye were right,” said Hoseason to Alan. “Ye have saved the brig, sir. I’ll mind that when we come to clear accounts.” And I believe he not only meant what he said, but would have done it; so high a place did the Covenant hold in his affections.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped (Illustrated): The 1886 Classic Edition with Original Illustrations

“He said this as if he had been Charlemagne, and commanded armies; and indeed, much as I admired his courage, I was always in danger of smiling at his vanity: in danger, I say, for had I not kept my countenance, I would be afraid to think what a quarrel might have followed.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped (Illustrated): The 1886 Classic Edition with Original Illustrations