Robertson Davies Quotes

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.

The clerisy are those who seek, and find, delight and enlargement of life in books. The clerisy are those for whom reading is a personal art.

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.

She has been kissed as often as a police-court Bible, and by much the same class of people.

Secrets are the blood of life. Every big thing is a secret, even when you know it, because you never know all of it. If you can know everything about anything, it is not worth knowing.

I think of the author as somebody who goes into the marketplace and puts down his rug and says, 'I will tell you a story' and then he passes the hat.

You never see what you want to see, forever playing to the gallery.

Although I am almost illiterate mathematically, I grasped very early in life that any one who can count to ten can count upward indefinitely if he is fool enough to do so.

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

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

A big man is always accused of gluttony, whereas a wizened or osseous man can eat like a refugee at every meal, and no one ever notices his greed.

The nature of happiness is such that happiness retreats the more intensely you pursue it.

Boredom and stupidity and patriotism, especially when combined, are three of the greatest evils of the world we live in.

Curiosity is part of the cement that holds society together.

The quality of what is said inevitably influences the way in which it is said, however inexperienced the writer.

It seemed to me as if the stones sang, in the strangest voices, in the language of Ultima Thule.

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

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.

We live in a world where bulk is equated with quality.

In my experience tact is usually worse than the brutalities of truth.

The problem for a Paracelsian physician like me is that I see diseases as disguises in which people present me with their wretchedness.

Fiction is not photography, it's oil painting.

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

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

I was afraid and did not know what I feared, which is the worst kind of fear.

The most original thing a writer can do is write like himself. It is also his most difficult task.

If you don't hurry up and let life know what you want, life will damned soon show you what you'll get.

The art of the quoter is to know when to stop.

This is one of the cruelties of the theatre of life; we all think of ourselves as stars and rarely recognize it when we are indeed mere supporting characters or even supernumeraries.

Whether you are really right or not doesn't matter; it's the belief that counts.

If you're going to do something that looks evil, don't smear it with icing and pretend it's good; just bloody well do it and keep your eyes peeled.

Be sure to choose what you believe and why you believe it, because if you don't choose your beliefs, you may be certain that some belief, and probably not a very credible one, will choose you.

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

And I say to you that if you bring curiosity to your work it will cease to be merely a job and become a door through which you enter the best that life has to give you.

The ideal companion in bed is a good book.

A man who recognizes no God is probably placing an inordinate value on himself.

When one is traveling, one must expect to spend a certain amount of money foolishly.

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

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.

The clerisy are those who read for pleasure, but not for idleness; who read for pastime but not to kill time; who love books, but do not live by books

I was not sure I wanted to issue orders to life; I rather liked the Greek notion of allowing Chance to take a formative hand in my affairs.

A Library goes on as far as thought can reach.

I never heard of anyone who was really literate or who ever really loved books who wanted to suppress any of them.

There is more to marriage than four bare legs under a blanket.

The result of a single action may spread like the circles that expand when a stone is thrown into a pond, until they touch places and people unguessed at by the person who threw the stone.

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

Money, it is often said, does not bring happiness; it must be added, however, that it makes it possible to support unhappiness with exemplary fortitude.

It is lost, lovely child, somewhere in the ragbag that I laughingly refer to as my memory.

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.

You would not serve junk food at a banquet, and your book must be a banquet. Get your language from Swift, not from Shopsy's.