Quotes & Sayings by Blackbeard-Page 1 "It is a blessing for a man to have a say in his own fate." "The lot of them are tough mermaids." If I give you quarters or take any from you, damnation seizes my soul. I swear by my father's name, by my mother's blood, and by my own skin, never to rest until I reach the highest rank under the sun. These are some of the quotes attributed to Robert Louis Stevenson, an American writer who has been called the Walt Whitman of his time. He was born on July 31st, 1874 in Edinburgh, Scotland and died on October 16th, 1894 at the age of 30 after falling overboard from his boat while sailing off Hawaii during a storm. His body was not found until two days later. He started writing at a very young age and had his first book published when he was just 19 years old. From then on he wrote many more books, most of which were successful. In addition to being a writer, he was also a sailor, a traveler, and a deep-sea fisherman.