Robertson Davies Quotes

Extraordinary people survive under the most terrible circumstances and they become more extraordinary because of it.

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

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

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.

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

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

Conversation in its true meaning isn't all wagging the tongue; sometimes it is a deeply shared silence.

Never harbor grudges; they sour your stomach and do no harm to anyone else.

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

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.

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

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.

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

A man must be obedient to the promptings of his innermost heart.

Only a fool expects to be happy all the time.

We mistrust anything that too strongly challenges our ideal of mediocrity.

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.

Pornography is rather like trying to find out about a Beethoven symphony by having somebody tell you about it and perhaps hum a few bars.

All mothers think their children are oaks, but the world never lacks for cabbages.

It is not always easy to diagnose. The simplest form of stupidity - the mumbling, nose-picking, stolid incomprehension - can be detected by anyone. But the stupidity which disguises itself as thought, and which talks so glibly and eloquently, indeed never stops talking, in every walk of life is not so easy to identify, because it marches under a formidable name, which few dare attack. It is called Popular Opinion.

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

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.

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.

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

Are you going to be just kind of a walking monument to a job, or are you going to have some kind of really significant inner life of your own? Because the external things the job, the house, the this, the that do not really fill the place inside.