It is a waste of time to dissipate one's moral zeal in disapproving of royal persons who have mistresses. — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
“Pessimism is a very easy way out when you’re considering what life really is, because pessimism is a short view of life.… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
“He gave me this advice one time: Never marry your childhood sweetheart, he said; the reasons that make you choose her will… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
Women always think that if they tell a man not to be pompous that will shut him up, but I am an… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to the idealized past. — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
“...I managed to make it clear that what I most wanted was time to grow up. The war had not matured me;… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
“But when mother died, Caroline was twelve, and in that queer time between childhood and nubile girlhood, when some girls seem to… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
Pessimism is a very easy way out when you're considering what life really is, because pessimism is a short view of life… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
“The only trouble was, I wasn't with a group of my peers. Who are my peers? [...] And there I was with… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
I would not for a moment have you suppose that I am one of those idiots who scorns Science, merely because it… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
“God, youth is a terrible time! So much feeling and so little notion of how to handle it!” — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
There is no nonsense so gross that society will not, at some time, make a doctrine of it and defend it with… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
“There comes a time when one must be strong with rationalists, for they can reduce anything whatever to dust, if they happen… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
“Before she continued her search she sat in his revolving desk chair, and wept for the passing of time, and the necessary… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
As the tragic writer rids us of what is petty and ignoble in our nature, so also the humorist rids us of… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
“I thought I was in love with Leola, by which I meant that if I could have found her in a quiet… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
“There was a moment, however, when the King and I were looking directly into each other's eyes, and in that instant I… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to the idealised past. — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
“Life, as he conceived of it, was a long decline from a glorious past, and if a reader approaches a newspaper in… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
“Can I be a modern girl, if I acknowledge such thoughts? I must be modern; I live now. But like everybody else,… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
The great book for you is the book that has the most to say to you at the moment when you are… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
“Why do people all over the world, and at all times, want marvels that defy all verifiable facts? And are the marvels… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
The best among our writers are doing their accustomed work of mirroring what is deep in the spirit of our time; if… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
The clerisy are those who read for pleasure, but not for idleness; who read for pastime but not to kill time; who… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
“...the irrational will have its say, perhaps because 'irrational' is the wrong word for it.” — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
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… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
Extraordinary people survive under the most terrible circumstances and they become more extraordinary because of it. — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
Although there may be nothing new under the sun, what is old is new to us and so rich and astonishing that we never… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
If I had to describe my remarks this evening frankly as if I were in police court and on oath, so to speak I… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
The people of the United States, perhaps more than any other nation in history, love to abase themselves and proclaim their unworthiness, and seem… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
I don't suppose God laughs at the people who think He doesn't exist. He's above jokes. But the devil isn't. That's one of his… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
Inactivity and deprivation of all accustomed stimulus is not rest; it is a preparation for the tomb — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
“My lifelong involvement with Mrs Dempster began at 5:58 o'clock p.m. on 27 December 1908, at which time I was ten years and seven months old.” — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
In a government like ours, the Crown is the abiding and unshakable element in government; politicians may come and go, but the Crown remains… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
There can be no doubt that Samuel Marchbanks is one of the choice and master spirits of this age. If there were such a… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
