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For God's sake, give me the young man who has brains enough to make a fool of himself.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
Stevenson sides with the young fool: someone willing to look ridiculous while trying something is, to him, more promising than a prudent person who never risks anything, because life will humble the cautious anyway. The line is quoted to cheer on risk-takers, in graduation speeches and in defence of youthful blunders, and it sums up the essay's whole bet on folly over timidity.
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In context
May contain spoilersShow the scene
Stevenson wrote it in "Crabbed Age and Youth", one of the essays in Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers (London: C. Kegan Paul, 1881). The essay defends the follies of the young against the caution of their elders. In it he mocks those who swallow the universe like a pill, then asks for the young man with brains enough to make a fool of himself, adding that the others will be made fools of by events "in downright earnest" before the farce is over. The words are Stevenson's own; nothing about the attribution is disputed.
Sources (2)
- Wikiquote: Robert Louis StevensonVirginibus Puerisque, Crabbed Age and YouthReference checked
- Wikisource: Virginibus Puerisque and Other PapersTitle pageReference checked
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