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Robertson Davies Quotes

1913–1995 Canada

Robertson Davies CC (August 28 1913 – December 2 1995) was a Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist and professor.

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Random Robertson Davies quote

188 quotes

Do they show us the future as it matures in the womb of the present?

A Voice from the Attic (1960)

I was never so amazed in my life as when the Sniffer drew his concealed weapon from its case and struck me to the ground, stone dead.

Murther and Walking Spirits (1991)

When religion abandons poetic utterance, it cuts its own throat.

Samuel Marchbanks' Almanack (1967)

I do not trust any advice which is given in bad prose.

A Voice from the Attic (1960)

His face was tense with pain. But then, who notices when they meet a theatre critic whose face is tense with pain? It is one of the marks of the profession.

Murther and Walking Spirits (1991)

There are, one presumes, tone-deaf readers.

A Voice from the Attic (1960)

Naked anger may sometimes be seen in priests of the Church of Rome, but the Church of England prefers the icy smile, the false bonhomie, the sword concealed in the palm-branch.

The Cunning Man (1994)

I like long and unusual words, and anybody who does not share my tastes is not compelled to read me.

Samuel Marchbanks' Almanack (1967)

It seems to me that most of us get all the adventure we are capable of digesting.

The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks (1947)

There is no reason to suppose that people today feel less than their grandfathers, but there is good reason to think that they are less able to read in a way which makes them feel.

A Voice from the Attic (1960)

Foolish people laugh at those readers a century ago who wept over the novels of Dickens. Is it a sign of superior intellect to read anything and everything unmoved, in a grey, unfeeling Limbo?

A Voice from the Attic (1960)

The world does so well without me, that I am moved to wish that I could do equally well without the world.

The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks (1947)

Any enjoyment or profit we get from life, we get Now; to kill Now is to abridge our own lives.

A Voice from the Attic (1960)

"All education is a struggle," said Marchbanks. "I had to struggle against schools and universities, of course, in order to get time to educate myself, which I did magnificently."

The Papers of Samuel Marchbanks (1985)

The people who fear humour — and they are many — are suspicious of its power to present things in unexpected lights, to question received opinions and to suggest unforeseen possibilities.

Opera and Humour (1991)

This is, after all, a book about reading, and the kind of reader I am addressing does not care primarily about being in fashion.

A Voice from the Attic (1960)

Childhood may have periods of great happiness, but it also has times that must simply be endured. Childhood at its best is a form of slavery tempered by affection.

Lewis Carroll in the Theatre (1994)

People marry most happily with their own kind. The trouble lies in the fact that people usually marry at an age where they do not really know what their own kind is.

A Voice from the Attic (1960)

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.

Scottish Folklore and Opera (1992)

Modern disillusion is unlikely to last forever, and nothing rings so hollow as the angst of yesterday.

Reading (1990)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Robertson Davies (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.