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Robertson Davies

Robertson Davies Quotes

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Famous Robertson Davies Quotes

“As the tragic writer rids us of what is petty and ignoble in our nature, so also the humorist rids us of what is cautious, calculating, and priggish--about half of our social conscience, indeed. Both of them permit us, in blessed moments of revelation, to soar above the common level of our lives.”

MomentsSocialLevelsCommonHalfOur LivesConscienceTragedyBlessedRevelationsTragicPermitSoarPettyCautiousHumoristsCalculatingIgnoble
Book:The Personal Art: Reading to Good Purpose
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“I don't think I would ever write a book with what anybody could call pornography in it, because I feel that pornography is a cheat. It is an attempt to provide sexual experience by secondhand means. Now sex is a thing which has to be experienced firsthand, if you are really going to understand it, and 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. It's not the same thing. Sex is primarily a question of relationships. Pornography is a do-it-yourself kit--a twenty-second best.”

IfsThinkingFeelsWritingTryingMeanBookSexTwentiesBarsCheatPornographySymphonyDo It YourselfSecond Best
Author:Robertson Davies
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“That is the operatic problem; the singer must keep up a big head of steam while trying to appear secretive, or seductive, or consumptive. Some ingenious composer should write an opera about a group of people who were condemned by a cruel god to scream all the time; it would be an instantaneous success, and a triumph of versimilitude.”

PeopleShouldWritingTryingProblemBigsWould BeGroupsSingersTriumphScreamOperaComposerSteamSeductiveIngeniousSecretiveInstantaneousBig Heads
Book:The papers of Samuel Marchbanks
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“The attributes of God have been carefully explored. But the Devil's attributes have been left vague. I think I've found one of them. It is he who puts the prices on things." "Doesn't God put a price on things?" "No. One of his attributes is magnanimity. But the Devil is a setter of prices, and a usurer, as well. You buy from him at an agreed price, but the payments are all on time, and the interest is charged on the whole of the principal, right up to the last payment, however much of the principal you think you have paid off in the meantime.”

ThinkingWellsHas BeensWholeLastsFoundLeftInterestDevilPaidAttributesPrincipalVaguePaymentMagnanimityPaid OffAttributes Of God
Author:Robertson Davies
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“Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and 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.”

IfsKnowsLifeMayMatterHappinessWorryProductsDeterminationHappyTreasureBrandsUnhappinessBeing HappyTemperamentTrue HappinessFinding HappinessGreat HappinessNot HappyLife HappinessPluckStop WorryingInner HappinessAlways HappyJust Be HappyFeeling HappyLife And HappinessSelf HappinessAlways Be HappyReal HappinessWhat Is HappinessInner Peace And HappinessHappy ThingsBeing Happy With LifeMy Own Happiness
Author:Robertson Davies
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“I object to being told that I am saving daylight when my reason tells me that I am doing nothing of the kind... At the back of the Daylight Saving scheme I detect the bony, blue-fingered hand of Puritanism, eager to push people into bed earlier, and get them up earlier, to make them healthy, wealthy and wise in spite of themselves.”

PeopleKindReasonHandsWiseObjectsHealthyBedBlueSavingSpiteWealthySchemesDoing NothingDaylightPuritanismSaving TimeDaylight Savings
Author:Robertson Davies
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“We have educated ourselves into a world from which wonder, and he fear and dread and splendor and freedom of wonder have been banished. Of course wonder is costly. You couldn't incorporate it into a modern state, beacuse it is the antithesis of the anxiously worshiped security which is what a modern state is asked to give. Wonder is marvellous but it is also cruel, cruel, cruel. It is undemocratic, discriminatory and pitiless.”

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Book:World of wonders
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“To instruct calls for energy, and to remain almost silent, but watchful and helpful, while students instruct themselves, calls for even greater energy. To see someone fall (which will teach him not to fall again) when a word from you would keep him on his feet but ignorant of an important danger, is one of the tasks of the teacher that calls for special energy, because holding in is more demanding than crying out.”

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Book:The Cornish Trilogy
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“We tend to think human knowledge as progressive; because we know more and more, our parents and grandparents are back numbers. But a contrary theory is possible - that we simply recognize different things at different times and in different ways.”

ThinkingKnowsWayHumansDifferentParentNumbersTheoryContraryDifferent WaysDifferent ThingsProgressiveGrandparentDifferent TimesHuman KnowledgeParents And Grandparents
Book:The Cornish Trilogy
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