Robertson Davies Quotes - Page 9

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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

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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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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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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

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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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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

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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

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That's the nub of the thing, you see seriousness of spirit. It doesn't mean heaviness of heart, or a lack of fantasy, but it does mean an awareness of influences that touch our lives, sometimes in ways that seem cruel and unfeeling, and sometimes in ways that open up a glory which can never be forgotten.

Robertson Davies

Mean, Heart, Way

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

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The first principle, when you don't know anything about the subject of a thesis, is to let the candidate talk, nodding now and then with an ambiguous smile. He thinks you know, and are counting his mistakes, and it unnerves him... the second principle of conducting an oral, ... is to pretend ignorance, and ask for explanations of very simple points. Of course your ignorance is real, but the examinee thinks you are being subtle, and that he is making an ass of himself, and this rattles him.

Robertson Davies

Mistake, Real, Ignorance

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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.

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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

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I saw corpses, and grew used to their unimportant look, for a dead man without any of the panoply of death is a desperately insignificant object.

Robertson Davies

Men, Looks, Saws

1970 Of World War I. Fifth Business, pt.2, ch.1.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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

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The people of the United States, perhaps more than any other nation in history, love to abase themselves and proclaim their unworthiness, and seem to find refreshment in doing so... That is a dark frivolity, but still frivolity.

Robertson Davies

Dark, America, People

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Very often when I am introduced to women, I think, What is she really like behind the disguise which she wears? And very often I discover that she is pleasant enough, and probably would expand and glow if she received enough affection.

Robertson Davies

Women, Thinking, Affection

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

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Inactivity and deprivation of all accustomed stimulus is not rest; it is a preparation for the tomb

Robertson Davies

Preparation, Deprivation, Stimulus

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

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Canada was settled, in the main, by people with a lower middle-class outlook, and a respect, rather than an affectionate familiarity, for the things of the mind.

Robertson Davies

Class, People, Mind

"Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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Women always think that if they tell a man not to be pompous that will shut him up, but I am an old hand at that game. I know that if a man bides his time his moment will come.

Robertson Davies

Men, Thinking, Games

"High Spirits: A Collection of Ghost Stories". Book by Robertson Davies, 1982.

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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

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

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