Robertson Davies
The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to the idealised past.Collection: Future
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.Collection: Diet
The love of truth lies at the root of much humor.Collection: Humor
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.Collection: Age
Their very conservatism is secondhand, and they don't know what they are conserving.Collection: Politics
I do not 'get' ideas; ideas get me.Collection: Imagination
Extraordinary people survive under the most terrible circumstances and they become more extraordinary because of it.
A happy childhood has spoiled many a promising life.
The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.
You never see what you want to see, forever playing to the gallery.
What we call luck is the inner man externalized. We make things happen to us.
Only a fool expects to be happy all the time.
If we seek the pleasures of love, passion should be occasional, and common sense continual.
Nothing is so easy to fake as the inner vision.
I never heard of anyone who was really literate or who ever really loved books who wanted to suppress any of them.
Authors like cats because they are such quiet, lovable, wise creatures, and cats like authors for the same reasons.
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.
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.
To be a book-collector is to combine the worst characteristics of a dope fiend with those of a miser.
The drama may be called that part of theatrical art which lends itself most readily to intellectual discussion: what is left is theater.
Fanaticism is overcompensation for doubt.
We wanted to meet him, for though we were neither of us naive people we had not wholly lost our belief that it is delightful to meet artists who have given us pleasure.
Literary critics, however, frequently suffer from a curious belief that every author longs to extend the boundaries of literary art, wants to explore new dimensions of the human spirit, and if he doesn't, he should be ashamed of himself.
The quality of what is said inevitably influences the way in which it is said, however inexperienced the writer.
The great book for you is the book that has the most to say to you at the moment when you are reading. I do not mean the book that is most instructive, but the book that feeds your spirit. And that depends on your age, your experience, your psychological and spiritual need.
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.
Few people can see genius in someone who has offended them.
The greatest gift that Oxford gives her sons is, I truly believe, a genial irreverence toward learning, and from that irreverence love may spring.
A Librettist is a mere drudge in the world of opera.
Tristan and Isolde were lucky to die when they did. They'd have been sick of all that rubbish in a year.
Canada is not really a place where you are encouraged to have large spiritual adventures.
The most original thing a writer can do is write like himself. It is also his most difficult task.
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.
No people in the world can make you feel so small as the English.
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.
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.Collection: Circles
The nature of happiness is such that happiness retreats the more intensely you pursue it.Collection: Motivational
Conversation in its true meaning isn't all wagging the tongue; sometimes it is a deeply shared silence.Collection: Silence
If you don't hurry up and let life know what you want, life will damned soon show you what you'll get.Collection: Moving On
The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to the idealized past.Collection: Future
Boredom and stupidity and patriotism, especially when combined, are three of the greatest evils of the world we live in.Collection: Boredom
Never harbor grudges; they sour your stomach and do no harm to anyone else.Collection: Inspirational
A man must be obedient to the promptings of his innermost heart.Collection: Heart
We mistrust anything that too strongly challenges our ideal of mediocrity.Collection: Challenges
Art is wine and experience is the brandy we distill from it.Collection: Art
All mothers think their children are oaks, but the world never lacks for cabbages.Collection: Mother
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.Collection: Talking
This is the Great Theatre of Life. Admission is free, but the taxation is mortal. You come when you can, and leave when you must. The show is continuous. Goodnight.Collection: Theatre
The art of the quoter is to know when to stop.Collection: Art
Love affairs are for emotional sprinters; the pleasures of love are for the emotional marathoners.Collection: Emotional