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Robertson Davies

Robertson Davies Quotes

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Famous Robertson Davies Quotes

“If I had to describe my remarks this evening frankly as if I were in police court and on oath, so to speak I should have to call it a ramble over several subjects, portions of which may seem to you to be impudent, and portions of which will be ignorant, and portions of which may contrive to be both at once.”

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Book:Selected Works on the Pleasures of Reading
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“Our forebears are deserving of tribute for one indisputable reason, if for no other: without them we should not be here. Let us recognize that we are not the ultimate triumph but rather we are beads on a string. Let us behave with decency to the beads that were strung before us and hope modestly that the beads that come after us will not hold us of no account simply because we are dead.”

IfsShouldReasonUltimateAccountsTriumphBehaveStringsDecencyTributeDeservingBeads
Author:Robertson Davies
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“Sometimes there was a serious article on a hot topic, and I especially remember one by a bishop headed "Is Nudity Salacious?" The bishop thought it need not be, if encountered in the proper spirit, but he gave a lot of enlightening examples of conditions under which it might be, in his word, "inflammatory." There wasn't much nudity in our neck of the woods, and I enjoyed that article tremendously.”

IfsNeedsSometimesMightRememberSpiritConditionsExampleSeriousHotWoodsEnjoyedNecksArticlesTopicsEnlighteningBishopsNudityHot Topic
Book:The Merry Heart: Reflections on Reading, Writing, and the World of Books
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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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“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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“Oho, now I know what you are. You are an advocate of Useful Knowledge.... Well, allow me to introduce myself to you as an advocate of Ornamental Knowledge. You like the mind to be a neat machine, equipped to work efficiently, if narrowly, and with no extra bits or useless parts. I like the mind to be a dustbin of scraps of brilliant fabric, odd gems, worthless but fascinating curiosities, tinsel, quaint bits of carving, and a reasonable amount of healthy dirt. Shake the machine and it goes out of order; shake the dustbin and it adjusts itself beautifully to its new position.”

IfsKnowsMindWellsOrderBitsKnowledgePositionAmountHealthyMachinesCuriosityBrilliantUselessOddExtrasReasonableShakesFascinatingIntroducingFabricDirtWorthlessNeatScrapGemsQuaintCarvingTinselUseful KnowledgeDustbinNew Position
Book:Tempest-tost
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“Comparatively few people know what a million dollars actually is. To the majority it is a gaseous concept, swelling or decreasing as the occasion suggests. In the minds of politicians, perhaps more than anywhere, the notion of a million dollars has this accordion-like ability to expand or contract; if they are disposing of it, the million is a pleasing sum, reflecting warmly upon themselves; if somebody else wants it, it becomes a figure of inordinate size, not to be compassed by the rational mind.”

PeopleIfsKnowsWantMindWarAbilityMoneyMillionsFiguresPoliticianConceptsMajorityDollarsNotionSizeRationalOccasionsContractsReflectingMillion DollarsSwellingAccordions
Author:Robertson Davies
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“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.”

IfsWayLifeFeelsYearsLooksLongHelpingProblemTodayLife IsEasyRealizingViewsMankindTerribleFutureThousandHappeningsComplexityPessimismThousand YearsPessimisticEasy WayFuture Of Mankind
Author:Robertson Davies
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“That was what stuck in the craws of all the good women of Deptford: Mrs Dempster had not been raped, as a decent woman would have been-no, she had yielded because a man wanted her. The subject was not one that could be freely discussed even among intimates, but it was understood without saying that if women began to yield for such reasons as that, marriage and society would not last long. Any man who spoke up for Mrs Dempster probably believed in Free Love. Certainly he associated sex with pleasure, and that put him in a class with filthy thinkers like Cece Athelstan.”

IfsMenLoveLongHas BeensReasonAgeWantedLastsSexPleasureClassSubjectsUnderstoodStuckDecentSpokesYieldThinkerFilthyGood WomanFree LoveDecent Woman
Book:Fifth business
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“Although there may be nothing new under the sun, what is old is new to us and so rich and astonishing that we never tire of it. If we do tire of it, if we lose our curiosity, we have lost something of infinite value, because to a high degree it is curiosity that gives meaning and savour to life.”

IfsGivingMayValuesLostLosesSunRichDegreesInfiniteCuriosityTireAstonishingNothing NewSavourNothing New Under The Sun
Book:Selected works on the art of writing
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