Robertson Davies Quotes - Page 9

Quotes about:

A great many complimentary things have been said about the faculty of memory, and if you look in a good quotation book you will find them neatly arranged.

Robertson Davies

Memories, Book, Looks

4 Copy quote
The US, for historical reasons, mistrusts the concept of a welfare state, and this mistrust shows itself nakedly under present US government, which commits uncounted billions of the national wealth to what it calls defence, and is close-fisted in giving money to plans which would ameliorate the grinding poverty of a great part of its people. Quite simply, in Canada you could not get away with that.

Robertson Davies

Giving Money, Government, People

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

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
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
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.

4 Copy quote
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

4 Copy quote
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.

4 Copy quote
Of course, fairies are all imported in North America. We have no native fairies. The Little People do not long survive importation unless they go to California and grow large and beautiful, but haven't much flavour, like the fruit and the film stars.

Robertson Davies

Beautiful, Stars, California

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

4 Copy quote
Celtic civilization was tribal, but by no means savage or uncultivated. People who regarded the theft of a harp from a bard as a crime second only to an attack on the tribal chieftain cannot be regarded as wanting in cultivated feeling.

Robertson Davies

Mean, Civilization, People

Robertson Davies, Surridge, Jennifer (1997). “Happy Alchemy: Writings on the Theatre and Other Lively Arts”, M&S

4 Copy quote
In too many modern churches there is no emphasis on theology at all. There is a kind of justification by works or by keeping up with modern trends anything that will drag in a few more people.

Robertson Davies

People, Church, Trends

"Conversations with Robertson Davies". Book by Robertson Davies, "Author Says Messiah Could Be a Woman", 1989.

4 Copy quote
Art is always at peril in universities, where there are so many people, young and old, who love art less than argument, and dote upon a text that provides the nutritious pemmican on which scholars love to chew.

Robertson Davies

Art, People, Argument

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

4 Copy quote
The inert mind is a greater danger than the inert body, for it overlays and stifles the desire to live.

Robertson Davies

Mind, Desire, Body

4 Copy quote
My curiosity was in no way cruel. Deviations from the commonplace attracted me strongly, as they still do; and to me the hermaphrodite and the living skeleton were interesting for the same reason as was Creatore, or the resplendent Guardsmen of the bands - because such people did not often come my way, and I hoped that they might impart some great revelation to me, some insight which would help me to a clearer understanding of the world about me.

Robertson Davies

Skeletons, Interesting, People

"I Remember Creatore". Essay by Robertson Davies, 1948.

7 Copy quote
The pleasures of love are for those who are hopelessly addicted to another living creature. The reasons for such addiction are so many that I suspect they are never the same in any two cases. It includes passion but does not survive by passion; it has its whiffs of the agreeable vertigo of young love, but it is stable more often than dizzy; it is a growing, changing thing, and it is tactful enough to give the addicted parties occasional rests from strong and exhausting feeling of any kind.

Robertson Davies

Strong, Party, Passion

"The Pleasures of Love". Book by Robertson Davies, 1961.

4 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
Several children present me with scraps of paper for autographs: obviously don't know who I am and don't care. I sign "Jackie Collins" and they go away quite content.

Robertson Davies

Children, Who I Am, Going Away

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

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
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
I am quite a wise old bird, but I am no desert hermit who can only prophesy when his guts are knotted with hunger. I am deep in the old man’s puzzle, trying to link the wisdom of the body with the wisdom of the spirit until the two are one.

Robertson Davies

Wise, Men, Two

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

4 Copy quote
If I had my way books would not be written in English but in an exceedingly difficult secret language.... This plan would have the advantage of scaring off all amateur authors, retired politicians, country doctors...who would not have the patience to learn the secret language.

Robertson Davies

Country, Book, Doctors

4 Copy quote
To instruct calls for energy, and to remain almost silent, but watchful and helpful, while students instruct themselves, calls for even greater energy. To see someone fall (which will teach him not to fall again) when a word from you would keep him on his feet but ignorant of an important danger, is one of the tasks of the teacher that calls for special energy, because holding in is more demanding than crying out.

Robertson Davies

Teacher, Fall, Feet

Robertson Davies (1992). “The Cornish Trilogy”, Penguin Group USA

4 Copy quote
We tend to think human knowledge as progressive; because we know more and more, our parents and grandparents are back numbers. But a contrary theory is possible - that we simply recognize different things at different times and in different ways.

Robertson Davies

Thinking, Numbers, Grandparent

Robertson Davies (1992). “The Cornish Trilogy”, Penguin Group USA

4 Copy quote
Computers will have to learn that when I quote from some old author who spelled differently from the machine, the wishes of the long-dead author will have to be respected, and the machine will have to mind its manners

Robertson Davies

Long, Mind, Wish

4 Copy quote
The little boy nodded at the peony and the peony seemed to nod back. The little boy was neat, clean and pretty. The peony was unchaste, dishevelled as peonies must be, and at the height of its beauty.(...) Every hour is filled with such moments, big with significance for someone.

Robertson Davies

Boys, Littles, Height

Robertson Davies (1992). “The Cornish Trilogy”, Penguin Group USA

136 Copy quote
A boy is a man in miniature, and though he may sometimes exhibit notable virtue, as well as characteristics that seem to be charming because they are childlike, he is also a schemer, self-seeker, traitor, Judas, crook, and villain - in short, a man.

Robertson Davies

Boys, Men, Self

Robertson Davies (1996). “Fifth business”, Penguin, 1996

6 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

Stephen Leacock

Margaret Laurence

Mordecai Richler

Timothy Findley

Michael Ondaatje

Margaret Atwood

Robertson Davies

Follow

Born: August 28, 1913
Died: December 2, 1995
Occupation: Novelist
Cite this Page: Citation

Popular Topics