When a man is down on his luck he seems to consume all he can get of coffee and doughnuts. Robertson Davies More Quotes by Robertson Davies More Quotes From Robertson Davies I never heard of anyone who was really literate or who ever really loved books who wanted to suppress any of them. Censors only read a book with great difficulty, moving their lips as they puzzle out each syllable, when someone tells them that the book is unfit to read. Robertson Davies lovebookmoving When one is traveling, one must expect to spend a certain amount of money foolishly. Robertson Davies amountcertain One can always tell it's summer when one sees school teachers hanging about the streets idly, looking like cannibals during a shortage of missionaries. Robertson Davies summerteacherschool I would not for a moment have you suppose that I am one of those idiots who scorns Science, merely because it is always twisting and turning, and sometimes shedding its skin, like the serpent that is [the doctors'] symbol. Robertson Davies doctorsskinsscience Pessimism is a very easy way out because it is a short view of life. If you look at what is happening around us today, you can't help but feel that life is a terrible complexity of problems. But if you look back a few thousand years, you realize that we have advanced fantastically. If you take a long view, I do not see how you can be pessimistic about the future of mankind. Robertson Davies futureviewslife Their very conservatism is secondhand, and they don't know what they are conserving. Robertson Davies conservatismpoliticspolitical The average politician goes through a sentence like a man exploring a disused mine shaft-blind, groping, timorous and in imminent danger of cracking his shins on a subordinate clause or a nasty bit of subjunctive. Robertson Davies nastyaveragemen If you attack Stupidity you attack an entrenched interest with friends in government and every walk of public life. Robertson Davies stupiditygovernmentlife The drama may be called that part of theatrical art which lends itself most readily to intellectual discussion: what is left is theater. Robertson Davies intellectualdramaart 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. Robertson Davies foolenoughmath Very few [doctors] are men of science in any very serious sense; they're men of technique. Robertson Davies doctorsmenscience 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. Robertson Davies beliefmaybelieve Some countries you love. Some countries you hate. Canada is a country you worry about. Robertson Davies hateworrycountry In a government like ours, the Crown is the abiding and unshakable element in government; politicians may come and go, but the Crown remains and certain aspects of our system pertain to it which are not dependent on any political party. In this sense, the Crown is the consecrated spirit of Canada. Robertson Davies politicalpartygovernment Female beauty is an important Minor Sacrament which cannot be received too often; I am not at all sure that neglect of it does not constitute a sin of some kind. Robertson Davies importantkindnessbeauty Book lovers are thought by unbookish people to be gentle and unworldly, and perhaps a few of them are so. But there are others who will lie and scheme and steal to get books as wildly and unconscionably as the dope-taker in pursuit of his drug. They may not want the books to read immediately, or at all; they want them to possess, to range on their shelves, to have at command. They want books as a Turk is thought to want concubines - not to be hastily deflowered, but to be kept at their master's call, and enjoyed more often in thought than in reality. Robertson Davies booklyingreality 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. Robertson Davies businessmenpeople I saw corpses, and grew used to their unimportant look, for a dead man without any of the panoply of death is a desperately insignificant object. Robertson Davies sawsmenlooks My curiosity was in no way cruel. Deviations from the commonplace attracted me strongly, as they still do; and to me the hermaphrodite and the living skeleton were interesting for the same reason as was Creatore, or the resplendent Guardsmen of the bands - because such people did not often come my way, and I hoped that they might impart some great revelation to me, some insight which would help me to a clearer understanding of the world about me. Robertson Davies skeletonspeopleinteresting No, it's the musicians and I must say they are an accomplished bunch, but odd, as musicians tend to be. Is it the vibration from their instruments, do you suppose, working on the brain? All that fraught buzzing? Robertson Davies musicianvibrationsbrain
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