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About this quote

What does it mean?
Focus on the spirit behind a gift rather than its value.
In plain terms
Value the intent of the giver over the object.
What can you take from it?
Intent matters more than the gift.

Where it applies

  • holiday exchange
  • birthday party
  • gratitude moment

Putting it to work

  • thank the giver
  • focus on meaning

Questions to consider

  • What makes a gift special?
  • How do you show gratitude?

Another view

Sometimes the material value is the main point of a gift.

More from Robert Louis Stevenson

  1. To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life.

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  2. In every part and corner of our life, to lose oneself is to be a gainer; to forget oneself is to be happy.

    Permalink to quote #7
  3. In anything fit to be called by the name of reading, the process itself should be absorbing and voluptuous; we should gloat over a book, be rapt clean out of o…

    Permalink to quote #4

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