Robertson Davies Quotes

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Robertson Davies

Profession : Novelist

Birth : August 28, 1913

The love of truth lies at the root of much humor.

Robertson Davies

I do not 'get' ideas; ideas get me.

Robertson Davies

A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight.

Robertson Davies

Their very conservatism is secondhand, and they don't know what they are conserving.

Robertson Davies

The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.

Robertson Davies

Canada is not really a place where you are encouraged to have large spiritual adventures.

Robertson Davies

A happy childhood has spoiled many a promising life.

Robertson Davies

There is no nonsense so gross that society will not, at some time, make a doctrine of it and defend it with every weapon of communal stupidity.

Robertson Davies

Only a fool expects to be happy all the time.

Robertson Davies

A Librettist is a mere drudge in the world of opera.

Robertson Davies

May I make a suggestion, hoping it is not an impertinence? Write it down: write down what you feel. It is sometimes a wonderful help in misery.

Robertson Davies

If we seek the pleasures of love, passion should be occasional, and common sense continual.

Robertson Davies

The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to the idealised past.

Robertson Davies

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

No people in the world can make you feel so small as the English.

Robertson Davies

Students today are a pretty solemn lot. One of the really notable achievements of the twentieth century has been to make the young old before their time.

Robertson Davies

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

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

Nothing is so easy to fake as the inner vision.

Robertson Davies

To be a book-collector is to combine the worst characteristics of a dope fiend with those of a miser.

Robertson Davies