Robertson Davies
Robertson Davies
William Robertson Davies, CC, OOnt, FRSC, FRSLwas a Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist, and professor. He was one of Canada's best known and most popular authors and one of its most distinguished "men of letters", a term Davies is variously said to have gladly accepted for himself and to have detested. Davies was the founding Master of Massey College, a graduate residential college associated with the University of Toronto...
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth28 August 1913
political conservatism conserving
Their very conservatism is secondhand, and they don't know what they are conserving.
quality world
We live in a world where bulk is equated with quality.
choices doubt age
There can be no doubt that Samuel Marchbanks is one of the choice and master spirits of this age. If there were such a volume as Who Really Ought To Be Who his entry would require several pages.
book junk language
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.
past audience-of-one long
In my collection, to me at least, the theatre of the past lives again and those long-dead playwrights and actors have in me an enthralled audience of one, and I applaud them across the centuries.
infinite possibility humans
After all, we are human beings, and not creatures of infinite possibilities.
people saint havens
People are not saints just because they haven't got much money or education.
realizing delighted primaries
Happiness is a by-product. It is not a primary product of life. It is a thing which you suddenly realize you have because you're so delighted to be doing something which perhaps has nothing whatever to do with happiness.
running fun people
Humour very often consists of shrewd perceptions about people. It's usually fun at someone's expense. Nowadays if you're funny at anybody's expense they run to the UN and say, "I must have an ombudsman to protect me." You hardly dare have a shrewd perception about anybody.
fighting thinking people
I think we're living in an age which despises humanity and despises bravery and doesn't need bravery because modern warfare has rather gone beyond bravery. It is a kind of warfare where people are fighting enemies they never see, killing people of whom they know nothing.
spirit clarity characteristics
Clarity is not a characteristic of the human spirit.
children tyrants crowns
Whoever declares a child to be "delicate" thereby crowns and anoints a tyrant.
curiosity desire together
Energy and curiosity are the lifeblood of universities; the desire to find out, to uncover, to dig deeper, to puzzle out obscurities, is the spirit of the university, and it is a channelling of that unresting curiosity that holds mankind together.
homosexual wells
here are some homosexuals whom we would do well to take seriously.