The quotations of

Robertson Davies

Canadian novelist

1913–1995

13 quotes, most often on Humor and Wisdom.

A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight.
- Reading
To be apt in quotation is a splendid and dangerous gift. Splendid, because it ornaments a man’s speech with other men’s jewels; dangerous, for the same reason.
Dangerous Jewels (1960)
- Quotations
When irony first makes itself known in a young man’s life, it can be like his first experience of getting drunk; he has met with a powerful thing which he does not know how to handle.
The Cunning Man (1994), Part 2, section 6.
- Youth
The wit’s desire is to be funny; the ironist is only funny as a secondary achievement.
The Cunning Man (1994), Part 2, section 6.
- Humor
The ironist is not bitter, he does not seek to undercut everything that seems worthy or serious, he scorns the cheap scoring-off of the wisecracker.
The Cunning Man (1994), Part 2, section 6.
- Humor
Prayer is petition, intercession, adoration, and contemplation; great saints and mystics have agreed on this definition. To stop short at petition is to pray only in a crippled fashion.
A Voice from the Attic (1960)
- Prayer
Applause we crave, from scorn we take defence
But have no armour ‘gainst indifference.
A Prologue (1939) to Oliver Goldsmith’s The Good Natur’d Man (1768).
- Acting
It is mankind’s discovery of language which more than any other single thing has separated him from the animal creation.
On Seeing Plays (1990).
- Animals
- Talking
Our age has robbed millions of the simplicity of ignorance, and has so far failed to lift them to the simplicity of wisdom.
A Voice from the Attic (1960)
- Knowledge
- Wisdom
Aristocrats need not be rich, but they must be free, and in the modern world freedom grows rarer the more we prate about it.
“Osbert Sitwell” (1945)
- Freedom
The idea that a wise man must be solemn is bred and preserved among people who have no idea what wisdom is, and can only respect whatever makes them feel inferior.
A Voice from the Attic (1960)
- Wisdom
Every man and woman is a mystery, built like those Chinese puzzles which consist of one box inside another, so that ten or twelve boxes have to be opened before the final solution is found.
The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks (1947)
- Character
The pleasures of love are for those who are hopelessly addicted to another living creature. The reasons for such addiction are so many that I suspect they are never the same in any two cases.
The Pleasures of Love (1961).
- Love

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