Robertson Davies Quotes - Page 8

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• 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

• 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

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• 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

• 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

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• 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

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

  Robertson Davies

  Writing, Tasks, Difficult

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

• 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

• 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

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• 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

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• If you attack Stupidity you attack an entrenched interest with friends in government and every walk of public life.

  Robertson Davies

  Life, Government, Stupidity

  "The Table Talk of Samuel Marchbanks". Book by Robertson Davies, 1949.

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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.

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• 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

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• "Civilization rests on two things," said Hitzig; "the discovery that fermentation produces alcohol, and voluntary ability to inhibit defecation. And I put it to you, where would this splendidly civilized occasion be without both?"

  Robertson Davies

  Discovery, Civilization, Two

  "The Cornish Trilogy".

  10 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

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• It is in this matter that I fall foul of so many American writers on writing; they seem to think that writing is a confidence game by means of which the author cajoles a restless, dull-witted, shallow audience into hearing his point of view. Such an attitude is base, and can only beget base prose.

  Robertson Davies

  Attitude, Fall, Mean

  "Elements of Style". Essay by Robertson Davies, 1959.

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• Anybody who has had experience of poetesses knows that they may forgive a punch on the jaw, but never a suggestion that they would be wiser to give up versifying.

  Robertson Davies

  Giving Up, Forgiving, Suggestions

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• Our forebears are deserving of tribute for one indisputable reason, if for no other: without them we should not be here. Let us recognize that we are not the ultimate triumph but rather we are beads on a string. Let us behave with decency to the beads that were strung before us and hope modestly that the beads that come after us will not hold us of no account simply because we are dead.

  Robertson Davies

  Triumph, Reason, Should

  "Haunted by Halloween". The New York Times, October 31, 1990.

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