Robertson Davies

“...the irrational will have its say, perhaps because 'irrational' is the wrong word for it.”

— Robertson Davies

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…

— Robertson Davies

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

— Robertson Davies

Although there may be nothing new under the sun, what is old is new to us and so rich and astonishing that…

— Robertson Davies

If I had to describe my remarks this evening frankly as if I were in police court and on oath, so to…

— Robertson Davies

The people of the United States, perhaps more than any other nation in history, love to abase themselves and proclaim their unworthiness,…

— Robertson Davies

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…

— Robertson Davies

Inactivity and deprivation of all accustomed stimulus is not rest; it is a preparation for the tomb

— Robertson Davies

“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…

— Robertson Davies

In a government like ours, the Crown is the abiding and unshakable element in government; politicians may come and go, but the…

— Robertson Davies

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

— Robertson Davies

There can be no doubt that Samuel Marchbanks is one of the choice and master spirits of this age. If there were…

— Robertson Davies

Nobody who looks as though he enjoyed life is ever called distinguished, though he is a man in a million.

— Robertson Davies

They're all so highly educated, you know. Education is a great shield against experience. It offers so much, ready-made and all from…

— Robertson Davies

Students today are a pretty solemn lot. One of the really notable achievements of the twentieth century has been to make the…

— Robertson Davies

Nothing grows old-fashioned so fast as modernity.

— Robertson Davies

It is a waste of time to dissipate one's moral zeal in disapproving of royal persons who have mistresses.

— Robertson Davies

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

— Robertson Davies

“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

I think of an author as somebody who goes into the marketplace and puts down his rug and says, "I will tell…

— Robertson Davies

“He became an unimaginative woman's creation. Delilah had shorn his locks and assured him he looked much neater and cooler without them.…

— Robertson Davies

Computers will have to learn that when I quote from some old author who spelled differently from the machine, the wishes of…

— Robertson Davies

Tristan and Isolde were lucky to die when they did. They'd have been sick of all that rubbish in a year.

— Robertson Davies

“He gave me this advice one time: Never marry your childhood sweetheart, he said; the reasons that make you choose her will…

— Robertson Davies

"There is no disputing about tastes," says the old saw. In my experience there is little else.

— Robertson Davies