404 Quotes by Robertson Davies

You would not serve junk food at a banquet, and your book must be a banquet. Get your language from Swift, not from Shopsy’s.

The gods destroy the heroes with a sudden blow, but they grind us mediocrities for weary, weary years.

I never heard of anyone who was really literate or who ever really loved books who wanted to suppress any of them.

A boy is a man in miniature, and though he may sometimes exhibit notable virtue, as well as characteristics that seem to be charming because they are childlike, he is also a schemer, self-seeker, traitor, Judas, crook, and villain – in short, a man.

Myself: But wasn’t the decision a right one? Am I not here? What more could Feeling have achieved than was brought about by Reason?

The egotist is all surface; underneath is a pulpy mess and a lot of self-doubt. But the egoist may be yielding and even deferential in things he doesn’t consider important; in anything that touches his core he is remorseless.

Snobbery, like every other social attitude, takes its character from those who practise it. The snob is supposedly a mean creature, delighting in slight and trivial distinctions. But is the man who bathes every day a snob because he does not seek the company of the one-bath-a-week, one-shirt-a-week, one-pair-of-clean-drawers-a-week, one-pair-of-socks-a-week man?

Computers will have to learn that when I quote from some old author who spelled differently from the machine, the wishes of the long-dead author will have to be respected, and the machine will have to mind its manners.

Of course I long for her, but in honesty I must say that I would rather long for her than have her continuously present. Travel agents assure us that ‘getting there is half the fun’; I might say with at least equal truth that longing is some of the best of loving.