Robertson Davies Quotes - Page 7

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• The truth is that art does not teach; it makes you feel, and any teaching that may arise from the feeling is an extra, and must not be stressed too much. In the modern world, and in Canada as much as anywhere, we are obsessed with the notion that to think is the highest achievement of mankind, but we neglect the fact that thought untouched by feeling is thin, delusive, treacherous stuff.

  Robertson Davies

  Art, Teaching, Thinking

  Robertson Davies (1993). “Fortune, My Foe and Eros at Breakfast”, p.8, Dundurn

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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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• I think a lot of people have unreasonable expectations because they never stop to consider what life actually has to offer them. They're always looking for some great epiphany from the skies. They never stop to consider the fact which human beings find hardest to recognize: "Maybe I'm not worthy of an epiphany.

  Robertson Davies

  Thinking, Sky, People

  Robertson Davies, J. Madison Davis (1989). “Conversations with Robertson Davies”, p.160, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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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.

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• "Children, don't speak so coarsely," said Mr Webster, who had a vague notion that some supervision should be exercised over his daughters' speech, and that a line should be drawn, but never knew quite when to draw it. He had allowed his daughters to use his library without restraint, and nothing is more fatal to maidenly delicacy of speech than the run of a good library.

  Robertson Davies

  Daughter, Running, Children

  "Tempest-Tost" by Robertson Davies, (Part 1), 1951.

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• Though thousands of people indulge themselves in it regularly, and even develop a taste for it, there is no doubt in my mind (and that of scientists whom I employ to prove it) that Work is a dangerous and destructive drug, and should be called by its right name, which is Fatigue.

  Robertson Davies

  Work, Names, People

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

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• To this day I am indulgent toward orchestras that are trying to lift themselves in the world, while critics are busy assuring them that they are not the Vienna Philharmonic and never will be.

  Robertson Davies

  Trying, Vienna, World

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

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• Let people alone. Let them find their way. Let them find their level and you may sometimes be delighted and astonished at the extraordinary high level to which they'll rise if they're let alone.

  Robertson Davies

  People, Levels, May

  "Conversations with Robertson Davies". Book by Robertson Davies, "Gzowski on FM", 1989.

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• "There is no disputing about tastes," says the old saw. In my experience there is little else.

  Robertson Davies

  Littles, Taste, Saws

  Robertson Davies (1967). “Marchbanks' Almanack”, Toronto ; Montreal : McClelland and Stewart

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• Did you know that Puritanism went hand in hand with dirt, that Oliver Cromwell put a 100 per cent tax on soap and that the repeal of the soap tax was one of the most popular acts of Charles II at his Restoration?

  Robertson Davies

  Hands, Restoration, Dirt

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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

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• I just am a Canadian. It is not a thing which you can escape from. It is like having blue eyes

  Robertson Davies

  Eye, Blue, Blue Eyes

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

  Robertson Davies

  Names, Matter, Trouble

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• I think we're living in an age which despises humanity and despises bravery and doesn't need bravery because modern warfare has rather gone beyond bravery. It is a kind of warfare where people are fighting enemies they never see, killing people of whom they know nothing.

  Robertson Davies

  Fighting, Thinking, People

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

  Robertson Davies

  Names, Speak, Shut Up

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• 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.

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• Like it or not, to reach middle age with less money or less prestige than our father had is somewhat to lose face. Stupid of course, when put like that, but who is prepared to argue that we are not stupid in several important ways?

  Robertson Davies

  Stupid, Father, Important

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

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• 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

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• Speakers' nerves affect them in various ways. Some tremble, some become frenzied. I lose all confidence, and suffer from a leaden oppression that makes me wonder why I ever agreed to speak at all; the Tomb and the Conqueror Worm seem preferable to delivering the stupid and piffling speech I have so carefully prepared.

  Robertson Davies

  Stupid, Suffering, Speech

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

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• Sometimes there was a serious article on a hot topic, and I especially remember one by a bishop headed "Is Nudity Salacious?" The bishop thought it need not be, if encountered in the proper spirit, but he gave a lot of enlightening examples of conditions under which it might be, in his word, "inflammatory." There wasn't much nudity in our neck of the woods, and I enjoyed that article tremendously.

  Robertson Davies

  Bishops, Might, Woods

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

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• The reclusive man who marries the gregarious woman, the timid woman who marries the courageous man, the idealist who marries the realist we can all see these unions: the marriages in which tenderness meets loyalty, where generosity sweetens moroseness, where a sense of beauty eases some aridity of the spirit, are not so easy for outsiders to recognize; the parties themselves may not be fully aware of such elements in a good match.

  Robertson Davies

  Loyalty, Party, Men

  "The Pleasures of Love". 1961.

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• Comparatively few people know what a million dollars actually is. To the majority it is a gaseous concept, swelling or decreasing as the occasion suggests.

  Robertson Davies

  People, Dollars, Majority

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

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• My dear fellow, my whole life is moved by the principle that the one thing which is more important than peace is music. It is because I believe that I am poor.

  Robertson Davies

  Believe, Important, Principles

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

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• here are some homosexuals whom we would do well to take seriously.

  Robertson Davies

  Homosexual, Wells

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• 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

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