Robertson Davies quotes - page 2

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)
Happiness is a by-product. It is not a primary product of life. It is a thing which you suddenly realize you have because you're so delighted to be doing something which perhaps has nothing whatever to do with happiness. View quote
Robertson Davies
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. View quote
Robertson Davies
If I had to describe my remarks this evening frankly - as if I were in police court and on oath, so to speak - I should have to call it a ramble over several subjects, portions of which may seem to you to be impudent, and portions of which will be ignorant, and portions of which may contrive to be both at once. View quote
Robertson Davies
I see Canada as a country torn between a very northern, rather extraordinary, mystical spirit which it fears and its desire to present itself to the world as a Scotch banker. View quote
Robertson Davies
Few people can see genius in someone who has offended them. View quote
Robertson Davies
Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness. View quote
Robertson Davies
Boredom and stupidity and patriotism, especially when combined, are three of the greatest evils of the world we live in. View quote
Robertson Davies
"There is no disputing about tastes," says the old saw. In my experience there is little else. View quote
Robertson Davies
I wish people weren't so set on being themselves, when that means being a bastard. View quote
Robertson Davies
Love affairs are for emotional sprinters; the pleasures of love are for the emotional marathoners. (Robertson Davies)
One learns one's mystery at the price of one's innocence. View quote
Robertson Davies
We tend to think human knowledge as progressive; because we know more and more, our parents and grandparents are back numbers. But a contrary theory is possible - that we simply recognize different things at different times and in different ways. View quote
Robertson Davies
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. View quote
Robertson Davies
Aristocrats need not be rich, but they must be free, and in the modern world freedom grows rarer the more we prate about it. View quote
Robertson Davies
Now, very few [physicians] are men of science in any very serious sense; they're men of technique. View quote
Robertson Davies
Women tell men things that men are not very likely to find out for themselves. View quote
Robertson Davies
The whole world is burdened with young fogies. Old men with ossified minds are easily dealt with. But men who look young, act young, and everlastingly harp on the fact they are young, but who nevertheless think and act with a degree of caution which would be excessive in their grandfathers, are the curses of the world. View quote
Robertson Davies
I think we should see whether we are wise trying to educate everybody to a high standard the way we are trying to do now. There has to be a high level of education so everybody is literate, but whether university education is necessary for everyone is open to question. View quote
Robertson Davies
After all, we are human beings, and not creatures of infinite possibilities. View quote
Robertson Davies
We live in a world where bulk is equated with quality. (Robertson Davies)
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. View quote
Robertson Davies
The problem for a Paracelsian physician like me is that I see diseases as disguises in which people present me with their wretchedness. View quote
Robertson Davies
When irony first makes itself known in a young man's life, it can be like his first experience of getting drunk; he has met with a powerful thing which he does not know how to handle. View quote
Robertson Davies
People are not saints just because they haven't got much money or education. View quote
Robertson Davies