Robertson Davies Quotes - Page 8

Quotes about:

• Tristan and Isolde were lucky to die when they did. They'd have been sick of all that rubbish in a year.

  Robertson Davies

  Love, Years, Sick

  4 Copy quote

• Women say . . . that if men had to have babies there would soon be no babies in the world. . . . I have sometimes wished that some clever man would actually have a baby in some new labor-saving way; then all men could take it up, and one of the oldest taunts in the world would be stilled forever.

  Robertson Davies

  Baby, Clever, Men

  8 Copy quote

• The most original thing a writer can do is write like himself. It is also his most difficult task.

  Robertson Davies

  Writing, Tasks, Difficult

  4 Copy quote

• I have no skills with machines. I fear them, and because I cannot help attributing human qualities to them, I suspect that they hate me and will kill me if they can.

  Robertson Davies

  Hate, Technology, Skills

  Robertson Davies (1997). “The Merry Heart: Reflections on Reading, Writing, and the World of Books”, Viking Press

  4 Copy quote

• One can always tell it's summer when one sees school teachers hanging about the streets idly, looking like cannibals during a shortage of missionaries.

  Robertson Davies

  Summer, Teacher, School

  4 Copy quote

• I see Canada as a country torn between a very northern, rather extraordinary, mystical spirit which it fears and its desire to present itself to the world as a Scotch banker.

  Robertson Davies

  Country, Scotch, Desire

  8 Copy quote

• The best among our writers are doing their accustomed work of mirroring what is deep in the spirit of our time; if chaos appears in those mirrors, we must have faith that in the future, as always in the past, that chaos will slowly reveal itself as a new aspect of order.

  Robertson Davies

  Past, Mirrors, Order

  "A Voice from the Attic". Book by Robertson Davies, 1960.

  6 Copy quote

• The love that dare not speak its name has become the love that won't shut up.

  Robertson Davies

  Names, Speak, Shut Up

  10 Copy quote

• Female beauty is an important Minor Sacrament which cannot be received too often; I am not at all sure that neglect of it does not constitute a sin of some kind.

  Robertson Davies

  Beauty, Kindness, Important

  "The Table Talk of Samuel Marchbanks".

  4 Copy quote

• These matters require what I think of as the Shakespearean cast of thought. That is to say, a fine credulity about everything, kept in check by a lively skepticism about everything.... It keeps you constantly alert to every possibility.

  Robertson Davies

  Thinking, Healthy, Matter

  Robertson Davies (1991). “Murther and Walking Spirits”, Penguin Group USA

  4 Copy quote

• Their very conservatism is secondhand, and they don't know what they are conserving.

  Robertson Davies

  Political, Politics, Conservatism

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

  8 Copy quote

• The drama may be called that part of theatrical art which lends itself most readily to intellectual discussion: what is left is theater.

  Robertson Davies

  Art, Drama, Intellectual

  Robertson Davies (1961). “The Personal Art: Reading to Good Purpose”, London : Secker & Warburg

  8 Copy quote

• Although I am almost illiterate mathematically, I grasped very early in life that any one who can count to ten can count upward indefinitely if he is fool enough to do so.

  Robertson Davies

  Math, Fool, Enough

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

  7 Copy quote

• Do not suppose, however, that I intend to urge a diet of classics on anybody. I have seen such diets at work. I have known people who have actually read all, or almost all, the guaranteed Hundred Best Books. God save us from reading nothing but the best.

  Robertson Davies

  Book, Reading, People

  Robertson Davies (1997). “The Merry Heart: Reflections on Reading, Writing, and the World of Books”, Viking Press

  4 Copy quote

• To be a book-collector is to combine the worst characteristics of a dope fiend with those of a miser.

  Robertson Davies

  Book, Writing, Dope

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

  9 Copy quote

• Literary critics, however, frequently suffer from a curious belief that every author longs to extend the boundaries of literary art, wants to explore new dimensions of the human spirit, and if he doesn't, he should be ashamed of himself.

  Robertson Davies

  Art, Suffering, Want

  "Somerset Maugham". 1982.

  8 Copy quote

• In a government like ours, the Crown is the abiding and unshakable element in government; politicians may come and go, but the Crown remains and certain aspects of our system pertain to it which are not dependent on any political party. In this sense, the Crown is the consecrated spirit of Canada.

  Robertson Davies

  Party, Government, Political

  Robertson Davies (1994). “Hunting Stuart and The Voice of the People”, p.7, Dundurn

  4 Copy quote

• I never heard of anyone who was really literate or who ever really loved books who wanted to suppress any of them. Censors only read a book with great difficulty, moving their lips as they puzzle out each syllable, when someone tells them that the book is unfit to read.

  Robertson Davies

  Love, Moving, Book

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

  4 Copy quote

• Nobody who looks as though he enjoyed life is ever called distinguished, though he is a man in a million.

  Robertson Davies

  Men, Looks, Life Is

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

  4 Copy quote

• Humour very often consists of shrewd perceptions about people. It's usually fun at someone's expense. Nowadays if you're funny at anybody's expense they run to the UN and say, "I must have an ombudsman to protect me." You hardly dare have a shrewd perception about anybody.

  Robertson Davies

  Running, Fun, People

  "Conversations with Robertson Davies". Book by Robertson Davies, "World of Wonders", 1989.

  4 Copy quote

• And why should it not be terrifying? A little terror, in my view, is good for the soul, when it is terror in the face of a noble object.

  Robertson Davies

  Fear, Views, Soul

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

  4 Copy quote

• Only in the theatre was it possible to see the performers and to be warmed by their personal charm, to respond to their efforts and to feel their response to the applause and appreciative laughter of the audience. It had an intimate quality; audience and actors conspired to make a little oasis of happiness and mirth within the walls of the theatre. Try as we will, we cannot be intimate with a shadow on a screen, nor a voice from a box.

  Robertson Davies

  Laughter, Wall, Voice

  "Lew Fields". 1941.

  4 Copy quote

• He was a genius - that is to say, a man who does superlatively and without obvious effort something that most people cannot do by the uttermost exertion of their abilities.

  Robertson Davies

  Business, Men, People

  Robertson Davies (1983). “The Deptford trilogy”, Penguin Mass Market

  6 Copy quote

• There can be no doubt that Samuel Marchbanks is one of the choice and master spirits of this age. If there were such a volume as Who Really Ought To Be Who his entry would require several pages.

  Robertson Davies

  Choices, Doubt, Age

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

  4 Copy quote

• Aristocrats need not be rich, but they must be free, and in the modern world freedom grows rarer the more we prate about it.

  Robertson Davies

  Needs, World, Rich

  4 Copy quote

Page 8 of 10

First

← Prev

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin