“I wish people weren't so set on being themselves, when that means being a bastard.”
― Robertson Davies, quote from The Rebel Angels
“Conversation in its true meaning isn't all wagging the tongue; sometimes it is a deeply shared silence. ”
― Robertson Davies, quote from The Rebel Angels
“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.”
― Robertson Davies, quote from The Rebel Angels
“Everything matters. The Universe is approximately fifteen billion years old, and I swear that in all that time, nothing has ever happened that has not mattered, has not contributed in some way to the totality.”
― Robertson Davies, quote from The Rebel Angels
“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. ”
― Robertson Davies, quote from The Rebel Angels
“Just about all men need a woman in one way or another, unless they’re very strange indeed. Tormenting you refreshes him. And you shouldn’t underestimate the gratitude all men feel for women’s beauty. Men who truly don’t like flowers are very uncommon and men who don’t respond to a beautiful woman are even more uncommon. It’s not primarily sexual; it’s a lifting of the spirits beauty gives. He’ll be in to torment you, and tease you, and enrage you, but really to have a good, refreshing look at you.”
― Robertson Davies, quote from The Rebel Angels
“... 'But Gold was not all. The other kings bring Frank Innocence and Mirth.' | Darcourt was startled, then delighted. 'That is very fine, Yerko; is it your own?' | 'No, it is in the story. I saw it in New York. The kings say, We bring you Gold, Frank Innocence, and Mirth.' | 'Sancta simplicitas,' said Darcourt, raising his eyes to mine. 'If only there were more Mirth in the message He has left to us. We miss it sadly, in the world we have made. And Frank Innocence. Oh, Yerko, you dear man.' ...”
― Robertson Davies, quote from The Rebel Angels
“A world without corruption would be a strange world indeed - and a damned bad world for lawyers, let me say.”
― Robertson Davies, quote from The Rebel Angels
“Civilization rests on two things," said Hitzig; "the discovery that fermentation produces alcohol, and voluntary ability to inhibit defecation. And I put it to you, where would this splendidly civilized occasion be without both?”
― Robertson Davies, quote from The Rebel Angels
“Conversations and jokes together, mutual rendering of good services, the reading together of sweetly phrased books, the sharing of nonsense and mutual attentions.”
― Robertson Davies, quote from The Rebel Angels
“If you cling frantically to the good, how are you to find out what the good really is?”
― Robertson Davies, quote from The Rebel Angels
“You are like a fire: you warm me.”
― Robertson Davies, quote from The Rebel Angels
“To marry was to take a hand in a dangerous game where the stakes are the highest - a fuller life or a life diminished and confined. It was a game for adult players.”
― Robertson Davies, quote from The Rebel Angels
“Subtle wits like to refresh themselves with a whiff of mild indecency.”
― Robertson Davies, quote from The Rebel Angels
“How much more complicated life is than the attainment of a Ph.D. would lead one to believe!”
― Robertson Davies, quote from The Rebel Angels
“Be not another if thou canst be thyself.”
― Robertson Davies, quote from The Rebel Angels
“The recognition of oneself as a part of nature, and reliance on natural things, are disappearing for hundreds of millions of people who do not know that anything is being lost.”
― Robertson Davies, quote from The Rebel Angels
“The house stank; a stench all its own pervaded every corner. It was a threnody in the key of Cat minor, with a ground-bass of Old Dog, and modulations of old people, waning lives, and relinquished hopes.”
― Robertson Davies, quote from The Rebel Angels
“You can't persuade most of the public that education and making a living aren't the same thing.”
― Robertson Davies, quote from The Rebel Angels
“It is part of the received doctrine of modern biography that all characters are Flawed, and as a Christian priest I am quite ready to agree, but the Flaws the biographers exhibited usually meant that the person under discussion had not seen eye to eye with the biographer on matters of politics, or social betterment, or something impersonal.”
― Robertson Davies, quote from The Rebel Angels
“Elsie, who had a lot of energy and no shame...she seduced me. It was not a success, from Elsie's point of view, because the orgasm for women was just coming into general popularity then, and she didn't have one.”
― Robertson Davies, quote from The Rebel Angels
“The body is the inescapable factor, you see. You can keep in good shape for what you are, but radical change is impossible. Health isn't making everybody into a Greek ideal; it's living out the destiny of the body.”
― Robertson Davies, quote from The Rebel Angels
“If you are determined on the religious life, you have to toughen up your mind. You have to let it be a thouroughfare for all thoughts, and among them you must make choices.”
― Robertson Davies, quote from The Rebel Angels
“When I hear girls I know longing to be what they call liberated, and when I hear others rejoicing in what they think of as liberation, I feel a fool, because I simply do not know where I stand. (Maria Magdalena Theotoky)”
― Robertson Davies, quote from The Rebel Angels
“"You see, I do a little in this way myself," he explained; "here is my most prized piece." He took from his pocket a snuffbox, which looked to be of eighteenth-century workmanship. Inside the lid was an enamel picture of Leda and the Swan, and when a knob was pushed to and fro the swan thrust itself between Leda's legs, which jerked in mechanical ecstasy. A nasty toy, I thought, but Urky doted on it. "We single gentlemen like to have these things," he said. "What do you do, Darcourt? Of course we know that Hollier has his beautiful Maria."
To my astonishment Hollier blushed, but said nothing. His beautiful Maria? My Miss Theotoky, of New Testament Greek? I didn't like it at all.”
― Robertson Davies, quote from The Rebel Angels
“Education for immediate effective consumption is more popular than ever, and nobody wants to think of the long term, or the intellectual tone of the nation.”
― Robertson Davies, quote from The Rebel Angels
Robertson Davies
Born place: in Thamesville, Ontario, Canada
Born date August 28, 1913
See more on GoodReads
“How Nathan doesn't know I fancy him is beyond me. I may as well walk around with a sandwich board, saying 'I heart Nathan', ringing a bell”
― Samantha Towle, quote from First Bitten
“Guys, please, one life-changing shock at a time, I felt like saying.”
― Fiona Wood, quote from Six Impossible Things
“The hardest part of watching someone watching me is making it appear that I'm not watching.”
― Pete Wentz, quote from Gray
“O my God! how much I long to be the missionary of Your holy will, and to teach all men that there is nothing more easy, more attainable, more within reach, and in the power of everyone, than sanctity. How I wish that I could make them understand that just as the good and the bad thief had the same things to do and to suffer; so also two persons, one of whom is worldly and the other leading an interior and wholly spiritual life have, neither of them, anything different to do or to suffer; but that one is sanctified and attains eternal happiness by submission to Your holy will in those very things by which the other is damned because he does them to please himself, or endures them with reluctance and rebellion. This proves that it is only the heart that is different. Oh! all you that read this, it will cost you no more than to do what you are doing, to suffer what you are suffering, only act and suffer in a holy manner. It is the heart that must be changed. When I say heart, I mean will. Sanctity, then, consists in willing all that God wills for us. Yes! sanctity of heart is a simple “fiat,” a conformity of will with the will of God. What could be more easy, and who could refuse to love a will so kind and so good? Let us love it then, and this love alone will make everything in us divine.”
― quote from Abandonment to Divine Providence: The Classic Text with a Spiritual Commentary
“She was much too thin. She was serene, like someone accustomed to sickness, someone who layed back to back with it in bed.”
― Helen Oyeyemi, quote from White is for Witching
Sleepeth Not, the Ba...
Earth Sentinels: The...
Like a Beggar
The Sordid Promise
The LDS Scriptures:...
The Proverbs 31 Lady...BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.
Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.
