Robertson Davies Quotes - Page 6

Quotes about:

• Although there may be nothing new under the sun, what is old is new to us and so rich and astonishing that we never tire of it. If we do tire of it, if we lose our curiosity, we have lost something of infinite value, because to a high degree it is curiosity that gives meaning and savour to life.

  Robertson Davies

  Giving, Curiosity, Degrees

  Robertson Davies (2008). “Selected works on the art of writing”, Penguin Group Canada

  5 Copy quote

• They're all so highly educated, you know. Education is a great shield against experience. It offers so much, ready-made and all from the best shops, that there's a temptation to miss your own life in pursuing the lives of your betters. It makes you wise in some ways, but it can make you a blindfolded fool in others.

  Robertson Davies

  Wise, Knowledge, Missing

  Robertson Davies (1976). “World of wonders”, Penguin Books, 1977

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• When a man is down on his luck he seems to consume all he can get of coffee and doughnuts.

  Robertson Davies

  Coffee, Men, Luck

  1970 Fifth Business, pt.4, ch.1.

  4 Copy quote

• The Victorians have been immoderately praised, and immoderately blamed, and surely it is time we formed some reasonable picture of them? There was their courageous, intellectually adventurous side, their greedy and inhuman side, their superbly poetic side, their morally pretentious side, their tea and buttered toast side, and their champagne and Skittles side. Much like ourselves, in fact, though rather dirtier.

  Robertson Davies

  Tea, Facts, Sides

  "The Girl with the Swansdown Seat/Abode of Love/1848". 1956.

  4 Copy quote

• You would not serve junk food at a banquet, and your book must be a banquet. Get your language from Swift, not from Shopsy's.

  Robertson Davies

  Book, Junk, Language

  "Robertson Davies: Man of Myth". Book by Judith Skelton Grant, 1978.

  4 Copy quote

• Too much traffic with a quotation book begets a conviction of ignorance in a sensitive reader. Not only is there a mass of quotable stuff he never quotes, but an even vaster realm of which he has never heard.

  Robertson Davies

  Book, Ignorance, Stuff

  7 Copy quote

• Fiction is not photography, it's oil painting.

  Robertson Davies

  Photography, Oil, Fiction

  5 Copy quote

• In the end, it is upon the quality and commitment of individuals that all group movements depend.

  Robertson Davies

  Commitment, Quality, Groups

  4 Copy quote

• The division between art and deviousness and crime is sometimes as thin as a cigarette paper.

  Robertson Davies

  Art, Division, Paper

  4 Copy quote

• That is the operatic problem; the singer must keep up a big head of steam while trying to appear secretive, or seductive, or consumptive. Some ingenious composer should write an opera about a group of people who were condemned by a cruel god to scream all the time; it would be an instantaneous success, and a triumph of versimilitude.

  Robertson Davies

  Writing, People, Seductive

  Robertson Davies (1986). “The papers of Samuel Marchbanks”, Viking, 1986

  4 Copy quote

• The average politician goes through a sentence like a man exploring a disused mine shaft-blind, groping, timorous and in imminent danger of cracking his shins on a subordinate clause or a nasty bit of subjunctive.

  Robertson Davies

  Men, Average, Nasty

  Robertson Davies (1949). “The Table Talk of Samuel Marchbanks”, Clarke, Irwin

  5 Copy quote

• Great drama, drama that may reach the alchemical level, must have dimension and its relevance will take care of itself. Writing about AIDS rather than the cocktail set, or possibly the fairy kingdom, will not guarantee importance. . . . The old comment that all periods of time are at an equal distance from eternity says much, and pondering on it will lead to alchemical theatre while relevance becomes old hat.

  Robertson Davies

  Distance, Drama, Writing

  Robertson Davies (1999). “Happy Alchemy: On the Pleasures of Music and the Theatre”, Penguin Group USA

  4 Copy quote

• Not enough attention is paid to the negative side of fashion. Great effort is exerted to make people look smart, but somebody should face the fact that a lot of people never will be smart, and that they should be given some assistance in maintaining their fascinating dowdiness.

  Robertson Davies

  Fashion, Smart, People

  Robertson Davies (1949). “The Table Talk of Samuel Marchbanks”, Clarke, Irwin

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• I do not really like vacations. I much prefer an occasional day off when I do not feel like working. When I am confronted with a whole week in which I have nothing to do but enjoy myself I do not know where to begin. To me, enjoyment comes fleetingly and unheralded; I cannot determinedly enjoy myself for a whole week at a time.

  Robertson Davies

  Vacation, Days Off, Week

  Robertson Davies (1949). “The Table Talk of Samuel Marchbanks”, Clarke, Irwin

  14 Copy quote

• Whoever declares a child to be "delicate" thereby crowns and anoints a tyrant.

  Robertson Davies

  Children, Tyrants, Crowns

  Robertson Davies (1996). “The Cunning Man”, Penguin Group USA

  4 Copy quote

• It used to be fashionable for authors to have their pictures taken with dogs, but the dogs always looked like models hired from an advertising agency, and probably were.

  Robertson Davies

  Dog, Taken, Agency

  "Mehitabel". 1959.

  4 Copy quote

• It seemed to me as if the stones sang, in the strangest voices, in the language of Ultima Thule.

  Robertson Davies

  Voice, Stones, Ultima

  Robertson Davies (1999). “Happy Alchemy: On the Pleasures of Music and the Theatre”, Penguin Group USA

  6 Copy quote

• No people in the world can make you feel so small as the English.

  Robertson Davies

  People, World, Feels

  6 Copy quote

• The Wild Hunt is known in all Celtic countries; it is a huntsman with a pack of hounds who is seen or heard to rush through the country. Those who see him are doomed to die. The writer heard the Wild Hunt quite distinctly one night in Wales several years ago, but has not suffered any ill effects from it as yet.

  Robertson Davies

  Country, Night, Years

  "High Spirits: A Collection of Ghost Stories". Book by Robertson Davies, 1982.

  6 Copy quote

• I think of the author as somebody who goes into the marketplace and puts down his rug and says, 'I will tell you a story' and then he passes the hat.

  Robertson Davies

  Writing, Thinking, Stories

  "Conversations with Robertson Davies".

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• May I make a suggestion, hoping it is not an impertinence? Write it down: write down what you feel. It is sometimes a wonderful help in misery.

  Robertson Davies

  Sad, Depression, Writing

  Robertson Davies (1999). “"For Your Eye Alone": Letters 1976-1995”, McClelland & Stewart

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• No, it's the musicians and I must say they are an accomplished bunch, but odd, as musicians tend to be. Is it the vibration from their instruments, do you suppose, working on the brain? All that fraught buzzing?

  Robertson Davies

  Brain, Musician, Vibrations

  Robertson Davies (1996). “The Cunning Man”, Penguin Group USA

  4 Copy quote

• You never see what you want to see, forever playing to the gallery.

  Robertson Davies

  Truth, Forever, Want

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• A big man is always accused of gluttony, whereas a wizened or osseous man can eat like a refugee at every meal, and no one ever notices his greed.

  Robertson Davies

  Men, Greed, Meals

  Robertson Davies (1949). “The Table Talk of Samuel Marchbanks”, Clarke, Irwin

  7 Copy quote

• I still have trouble identifying grammatical structures by name, though I know them as matters of usage.

  Robertson Davies

  Names, Matter, Trouble

  4 Copy quote

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