Robertson Davies Quotes - Page 4

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• I cannot imagine any boy of spirit who would not be delighted to play a drunkard even to vomiting in front of his Sunday school. Indeed, the vomiting might be the chief attraction of the role.

  Robertson Davies

  School, Sunday, Boys

  "Forgotten Dialogues". Essay by Robertson Davies, 1961.

  52 Copy quote

• Every man makes his own summer. The season has no character of its own, unless one is a farmer with a professional concern for the weather.

  Robertson Davies

  Summer, Character, Men

  "Three Worlds, Three Summers - But Not the Summer Just Past". Essay by Robertson Davies, 1949.

  4 Copy quote

• In my collection, to me at least, the theatre of the past lives again and those long-dead playwrights and actors have in me an enthralled audience of one, and I applaud them across the centuries.

  Robertson Davies

  Past, Audience Of One, Long

  Robertson Davies (2008). “Selected Works on the Pleasures of Reading”, Penguin Group Canada

  7 Copy quote

• Some countries you love. Some countries you hate. Canada is a country you worry about.

  Robertson Davies

  Country, Hate, Worry

  4 Copy quote

• There is absolutely no point in sitting down to write a book unless you feel that you must write that book, or else go mad, or die.

  Robertson Davies

  Book, Writing, Mad

  "That difficult first novel" by Kate Kellaway, www.theguardian.com. March 24, 2007.

  11 Copy quote

• If I had to describe my remarks this evening frankly as if I were in police court and on oath, so to speak I should have to call it a ramble over several subjects, portions of which may seem to you to be impudent, and portions of which will be ignorant, and portions of which may contrive to be both at once.

  Robertson Davies

  Should Have, Police, Ignorant

  Robertson Davies (2008). “Selected Works on the Pleasures of Reading”, Penguin Group Canada

  7 Copy quote

• People are not saints just because they haven't got much money or education.

  Robertson Davies

  People, Saint, Havens

  Robertson Davies, J. Madison Davis (1989). “Conversations with Robertson Davies”, p.39, Univ. Press of Mississippi

  4 Copy quote

• Oh hearts! Nobody gets through life without a broken heart. The important thing is to break the heart so that when it mends it will be stronger than before.

  Robertson Davies

  Heart, Broken, Important

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

  4 Copy quote

• After all, we are human beings, and not creatures of infinite possibilities.

  Robertson Davies

  Infinite, Possibility, Humans

  Robertson Davies, J. Madison Davis (1989). “Conversations with Robertson Davies”, p.35, Univ. Press of Mississippi

  4 Copy quote

• If I had my way books would not be written in English, but in an exceedingly difficult secret language that only skilled professional readers and story-tellers could interpret. Then people would have to go to public halls and pay good prices to hear. . .

  Robertson Davies

  Book, People, Secret

  4 Copy quote

• All art is holy. Not that it is all long-faced and miserable; it can be wild and wooly. But if it transforms you, it is art. And it is holy.

  Robertson Davies

  Art, Long, Religion

  5 Copy quote

• Canada, having few indigenous prejudices, has been compelled to import them from elsewhere, duty-free, and it is the rare Canadian who is not shaken, at some time in the year, by "old, unhappy, far-off things / And battles long ago", like Wordsworth's solitary reaper. We are a nation of immigrants, and not happy in our minds.

  Robertson Davies

  Long Ago, Years, Mind

  "The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks". Book by Robertson Davies, 1947.

  5 Copy quote

• The Bible takes much of its color from whoever is reading it, and it provides a text to support almost every shade of opinion, however preposterous.

  Robertson Davies

  Christian, Reading, Color

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

  4 Copy quote

• As the tragic writer rids us of what is petty and ignoble in our nature, so also the humorist rids us of what is cautious, calculating, and priggish--about half of our social conscience, indeed. Both of them permit us, in blessed moments of revelation, to soar above the common level of our lives.

  Robertson Davies

  Blessed, Tragedy, Half

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

  4 Copy quote

• To be apt in quotation is a splendid and dangerous gift. Splendid, because it ornaments a man's speech with other men's jewels; dangerous, for the same reason.

  Robertson Davies

  Men, Jewels, Speech

  "Colombia's Quotations Add Wit to Your Work" by Melissa J. Perenson. PC Mag, March 15, 1994.

  8 Copy quote

• If a man wants to be of the greatest possible value to his fellow-creature s let him begin the long, solitary task of perfecting himself.

  Robertson Davies

  Men, Long, Tasks

  4 Copy quote

• Every man is wise when attacked by a mad dog; fewer when pursued by a mad woman; only the wisest survive when attacked by a mad notion.

  Robertson Davies

  Funny, Wise, Dog

  Robertson Davies (1968). “Marchbanks' almanack”

  7 Copy quote

• I don't think I would ever write a book with what anybody could call pornography in it, because I feel that pornography is a cheat. It is an attempt to provide sexual experience by secondhand means. Now sex is a thing which has to be experienced firsthand, if you are really going to understand it, and pornography is rather like trying to find out about a Beethoven symphony by having somebody tell you about it and perhaps hum a few bars. It's not the same thing. Sex is primarily a question of relationships. Pornography is a do-it-yourself kit--a twenty-second best.

  Robertson Davies

  Sex, Book, Mean

  4 Copy quote

• The young are often accused of exaggerating their troubles; they do so, very often, in the hope of making some impression upon the inertia and the immovability of the selfish old.

  Robertson Davies

  Selfish, Trouble, Young

  Robertson Davies (1952). “Tempest-tost”, Clarke Irwin

  9 Copy quote

• No one needs a word processor if he has an efficient secretary.

  Robertson Davies

  Needs, Efficient, Secretary

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• It is a waste of time to dissipate one's moral zeal in disapproving of royal persons who have mistresses.

  Robertson Davies

  Mistress, Waste, Royal

  4 Copy quote

• But as a skeptic I am dubious about science as about everything else, unless the scientist is himself a skeptic, and few of them are. The stench of formaldehyde may be as potent as the whiff of incense in stimulating a naturally idolatrous understanding.

  Robertson Davies

  Science, Understanding, Dubious

  4 Copy quote

• You're all mad for words. Words are just farts from a lot of fools who have swallowed too many books. Give me things!

  Robertson Davies

  Book, Mad, Giving

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

  5 Copy quote

• Women tell men things that men are not very likely to find out for themselves.

  Robertson Davies

  Men

  Robertson Davies, J. Madison Davis (1989). “Conversations with Robertson Davies”, p.230, Univ. Press of Mississippi

  4 Copy quote

• Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular.

  Robertson Davies

  Happiness, Happy, May

  7 Copy quote

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