Robertson Davies quote: "There are times when I think that the reading I have done in the past has had no effect except to cloud my mind and make me indecisive"

Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Many a promising career has been wrecked by marrying the wrong sort of woman. The right sort of woma...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Comparatively few people know what a million dollars actually is. To the majority it is a gaseous co...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to an ideali...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

It is not always easy to diagnose. The simplest form of stupidity - the mumbling, nose-picking, stol...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

The people of the United States, perhaps more than any other nation in history, love to abase themse...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

I think of an author as somebody who goes into the marketplace and puts down his rug and says, I wil...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine bu...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

The greatest gift that Oxford gives her sons is, I truly believe, a genial irreverence toward learni...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

The love of truth lies at the root of much humor.
ROBERTSON DAVIES

He was a genius - that is to say, a man who does superlatively and without obvious effort something ...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Few people can see genius in someone who has offended them.
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Pornography is rather like trying to find out about a Beethoven symphony by having somebody tell you...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

What we call luck is the inner man externalized. We make things happen to us.
ROBERTSON DAVIES

A Librettist is a mere drudge in the world of opera.
ROBERTSON DAVIES

He types his labored column -- weary drudge! Senile fudge and solemn: spare, editor, to condemn thes...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

The eyes see only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Too much traffic with a quotation book begets a conviction of ignorance in a sensitive reader. Not o...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

I never heard of anyone who was really literate or who ever really loved books who wanted to suppres...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Authors like cats because they are such quiet, lovable, wise creatures, and cats like authors for th...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Although there may be nothing new under the sun, what is old is new to us and so rich and astonishin...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

The world is burdened with young fogies. Old men with ossified minds are easily dealt with. But men ...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

If I had my way books would not be written in English, but in an exceedingly difficult secret langua...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Nothing is so easy to fake as the inner vision.
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Fanaticism is . . . overcompensation for doubt.
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Fanaticism is overcompensation for doubt.
ROBERTSON DAVIES

There is no nonsense so gross that society will not, at some time, make a doctrine of it and defend ...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

I do not 'get' ideas; ideas get me.
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Do not suppose, however, that I intend to urge a diet of classics on anybody. I have seen such diets...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

A boy is a man in miniature, and though he may sometimes exhibit notable virtue, as well as characte...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

The most original thing a writer can do is write like himself. It is also his most difficult task.
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Literary critics, however, frequently suffer from a curious belief that every author longs to extend...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Tristan and Isolde were lucky to die when they did. They'd have been sick of all that rubbish in a y...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Inactivity and deprivation of all accustomed stimulus is not rest; it is a preparation for the tomb
ROBERTSON DAVIES

A happy childhood has spoiled many a promising life.
ROBERTSON DAVIES

You never see what you want to see, forever playing to the gallery.
ROBERTSON DAVIES

I object to being told that I am saving daylight when my reason tells me that I am doing nothing of ...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

To be a book-collector is to combine the worst characteristics of a dope fiend with those of a miser...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to the ideal...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Never harbor grudges; they sour your stomach and do no harm to anyone else.
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Every man is wise when attacked by a mad dog; fewer when pursued by a mad woman; only the wisest sur...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Wisdom is a variable possession. Every man is wise when pursued by a mad dog, fewer when pursued by ...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Very often when I am introduced to women, I think, What is she really like behind the disguise which...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

If we seek the pleasures of love, passion should be occasional, and common sense continual.
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Female beauty is an important Minor Sacrament which cannot be received too often; I am not at all su...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Extraordinary people survive under the most terrible circumstances and they become more extraordinar...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

The great book for you is the book that has the most to say to you at the moment when you are readin...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Canada is not really a place where you are encouraged to have large spiritual adventures.
ROBERTSON DAVIES

The people who fear humor - and there are many -are suspicious of its power to present things in une...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

May I make a suggestion, hoping it is not an impertinence? Write it down: write down what you feel. ...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

The quality of what is said inevitably influences the way in which it is said, however inexperienced...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

I never heard of anyone who was really literate or who ever really loved books who wanted to suppres...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Love affairs are for emotional sprinters; the pleasures of love are for the emotional marathoners.
ROBERTSON DAVIES

I heard his library burned down and both books were destroyed - and one of them hadn't even been col...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

If we seek the pleasures of love, passion should be occasional and common sense continual.
ROBERTSON DAVIES

The love of truth lies at the root of much humor
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Art is wine and experience is the brandy we distill from it
ROBERTSON DAVIES

The clerisy are those who read for pleasure, but not for idleness; who read for pastime but not to k...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Literary critics, however, frequently suffer from a curious belief that every author longs to extend...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

One of the most difficult tasks for the educated and sophisticated mind is to recognize that some cl...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Well, allow me to introduce myself to you as an advocate of Ornamental Knowledge. You like the mind ...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Pessimism is a very easy way out when you're considering what life really is, because pessimism is a...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

The drama may be called that part of theatrical art which lends itself most readily to intellectual ...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Authors like cats because they are such quiet, lovable, wise creatures, and cats like authors for th...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

He types his labored column - weary drudge! Senile fudge and solemn: spare, editor, to condemn these...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

I was not sure I wanted to issue orders to life; I rather liked the Greek notion of allowing Chance ...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

The authority of those who teach is often an obstacle to those who want to learn.
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Do not trust your memory; it is a net full of holes; the most beautiful prizes slip through it.
ROBERTSON DAVIES

A great many complimentary things have been said about the faculty of memory, and if you look in a ...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

The little boy nodded at the peony and the peony seemed to nod back. The little boy was neat, clean ...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Admission is free but the taxation is mortal. You come when you can, and leave when you must. The sh...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

He liked to make his hearers jump, now and then, and he said that our gravel pit was much the same s...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

But in every church there are people who, for reasons which seem sufficient to them, do not approve ...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

He [Jesus] had a terrible temper, you know, undoubtedly inherited from His Father.
ROBERTSON DAVIES

But one must remember that they were all men with systems. Freud, monumentally hipped on sex (for wh...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

When I had to leave she kissed me on both cheeks - a thing she had never done before - and said, 'Th...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Other-directed appears to be nothing more than a sociological term for weak-minded
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Only a fool expects to be happy all the time.
ROBERTSON DAVIES

The young are often accused of exaggerating their troubles; they do so, very often, in the hope of m...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

The love that dare not speak its name has become the love that won't shut up
ROBERTSON DAVIES

A big man is always accused of gluttony, whereas a wizened or osseous man can eat like a refugee at ...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

...I managed to make it clear that what I most wanted was time to grow up. The war had not matured m...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

I see Canada as a country torn between a very northern, rather extraordinary, mystical spirit which ...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Students today are a pretty solemn lot. One of the really notable achievements of the twentieth cent...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Look at what I wrote at the beginning of this memoir. Have I caught anything at all of the extraordi...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

—If Francis has really made up his soul [...], what lies ahead of him? Hasn't he achieved the grea...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

I wanted to get away,' said she; 'everybody wants to plague and worry me about nothing. They'll be a...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Geordie wrote a letter to Mr. Webster in which the shrieking figure of Apology was hounded through a...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Children, don’t speak so coarsely,’ said Mr. Webster, who had a vague notion that some supervisi...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Before she continued her search she sat in his revolving desk chair, and wept for the passing of tim...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

The only people who make any sense in the world are those who know that whatever happens to them has...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Nothing is more dangerous to maidenly delicacy of speech than the run of a good library.
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Oho, now I know what you are. You are an advocate of Useful Knowledge.... Well, allow me to introduc...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Money, it is often said, does not bring happiness; it must be added, however, that it makes it possi...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

She herself was a victim of that lust for books which rages in the breast like a demon, and which ca...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

Pessimism is a very easy way out when you’re considering what life really is, because pessimism is...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

All real fantasy is serious. Only faked fantasy is not serious. That is why it is so wrong to impose...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

I thought I was in love with Leola, by which I meant that if I could have found her in a quiet corne...
ROBERTSON DAVIES

It's a bit of a sore spot, the Thanksgiving in Indian country.
ROBBIE ROBERTSON

The Olympics were great, because you had to make the team, and then go to the games. Now, I don'...
OSCAR ROBERTSON

I think that teaching coaches are the norm now.
OSCAR ROBERTSON

But I like to think an athlete is an athlete.
OSCAR ROBERTSON

We're all Americans trying to compete. Magic was competing for his team and Larry for his team.
OSCAR ROBERTSON

I think that basketball players should get the job done no matter how it looks on the screen.
OSCAR ROBERTSON

I don't blame David Stern because a player gets on the court and he doesn't put out competit...
OSCAR ROBERTSON

But if people are buying the products, naturally they're gonna use them.
OSCAR ROBERTSON

You see what happens in college and high school games today - a three-point shot or a dunk. I think ...
OSCAR ROBERTSON

You look at today, it's a different situation. You have a game that has been transformed into a ...
OSCAR ROBERTSON

This is where young players today want to land. They want to be NBA players because of the money.
OSCAR ROBERTSON

I don't think that players learn how to play any other aspect of the game in high school or coll...
OSCAR ROBERTSON

But I think the image that's thrown out on television is a bad image. Because you see players wh...
OSCAR ROBERTSON

Basketball is basketball.
OSCAR ROBERTSON

You've got to learn the footwork, the positioning, how to box out, how to pass, how to shoot you...
OSCAR ROBERTSON

Now, I guess, people want stars. People are trying to invent stars.
OSCAR ROBERTSON

I was taught to play that way when I was in high school and even before I got to high school.
OSCAR ROBERTSON

You don't cut anywhere, don't pick down anywhere, don't double screen, no weak side pick...
OSCAR ROBERTSON

When you play against different people from all walks of life you can't do the same thing agains...
OSCAR ROBERTSON

I think that everyone should be able to dribble. Everyone should be able to pass. Otherwise, why are...
OSCAR ROBERTSON

When you go into a game on offense, you make a couple moves and see what the defender is going to do...
OSCAR ROBERTSON

It's a sad commentary when I have to say that sometimes in our country we are real sensitive to ...
OSCAR ROBERTSON

You need a teaching coach who understands the game of basketball, not just some guy coming on the co...
OSCAR ROBERTSON

It's like all guys want to do is make a dunk, grab their shirt and yell out and scream - they co...
OSCAR ROBERTSON

I'd like to think that the nature of the two teams - Boston being a championship team over the y...
OSCAR ROBERTSON

I mean the terrorists are - are like a pimple, like a boil. They'll go away.
PAT ROBERTSON

I think the Democrats are catering to them, but, you know, in the entire history of the United State...
PAT ROBERTSON

But if there's an erosion at home, you know, Thomas Jefferson warned about a tyranny of an oliga...
PAT ROBERTSON

God created the world; the laws of nature were created by God. True science tries to find out what G...
PAT ROBERTSON

In Europe, the big word is tolerance. You tolerate everything.
PAT ROBERTSON

It's the tyranny of an oligarchy that I'm concerned about.
PAT ROBERTSON

I know one man who was impotent who gave AIDS to his wife and the only thing they did was kiss.
PAT ROBERTSON

Islam is a violent, I was going to say religion, but it's not a religion. It's a political s...
PAT ROBERTSON

I just think it's shocking how many of these young people wind up in prison and they get turned ...
PAT ROBERTSON

The Ten Commandments are the most visible symbol because these commandments are recognized by Christ...
PAT ROBERTSON

The Supreme Court has insulted you over and over again, Lord. They've taken your Bible away from...
PAT ROBERTSON

I hate Alzheimer's. It is one of the most awful things because, here is a loved one, this is the...
PAT ROBERTSON

It seems to me the Washington Monument is a symbol of America's power. It has been the symbol of...
PAT ROBERTSON

I mean, if a person acts irresponsibly in his own life, he will pay the consequences. And it's n...
PAT ROBERTSON

Feminism encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy...
PAT ROBERTSON

The founding document of the United States of America acknowledges the Lordship of Jesus Christ beca...
PAT ROBERTSON

Well the basic thesis is that there's a god in heaven who is all powerful who wants to help peop...
PAT ROBERTSON

People who hate God... take it out on innocent people.
PAT ROBERTSON

I'm parodied as being some right-wing fundamentalist extremist, it just isn't true. The paro...
PAT ROBERTSON

Feminism is a socialist, anti-family, political movement that encourages women to leave their husban...
PAT ROBERTSON

I have a zero tolerance for sanctimonious morons who try to scare people.
PAT ROBERTSON

My message is to get human beings to love God, love their neighbor and for the life of me I just don...
PHIL ROBERTSON

The road has taken a lot of the great ones: Hank Williams, Buddy Holly, Otis Redding, Janis, Jimi He...
ROBBIE ROBERTSON

My grandmother's house was just a place of comfort. I mean, I remember going in there, and the k...
KAY ROBERTSON

Daddy had a farm - cows, pigs, OK, a big garden, OK? We did live off the land, and then we would sup...
SI ROBERTSON

If you simply put your faith in Jesus coming down in flesh, through a human being, God becoming fles...
PHIL ROBERTSON

Don't ever take a dramatic lesson. They will try to put your voice in a dinner jacket, and peopl...
DALE ROBERTSON

An actor can change himself to fit a part, whereas a personality has to change the part to fit himse...
DALE ROBERTSON

Everything is blurred on what's right and what's wrong. Sin becomes fine. Start with homosex...
PHIL ROBERTSON

When I go out or to an event, I'll wear blue jeans and a shirt. And sometimes when I go to an ev...
SI ROBERTSON

Music should never be harmless.
ROBBIE ROBERTSON

Failure is a disappointment but not defeat.
JEANNE ROBERTSON

"How can there be peace when drunkards, drug dealers, communists, atheists, New Age worshipers of Sa...
PAT ROBERTSON

Feminism is the radical notion that women are people
PAT ROBERTSON

What I tell young couples that are getting married is: you're going to have quarrels, and on som...
SI ROBERTSON

I asked Bob Dylan to paint the album cover for 'Music from Big Pink.' He said, 'Yeah, le...
ROBBIE ROBERTSON

Many of those people involved in Adolf Hitler were Satanists, many were homosexuals - the two things...
PAT ROBERTSON

When I was 14 years old, I had the opportunity to meet Buddy Holly. I asked him how he got that big,...
ROBBIE ROBERTSON

In Americana, the facts and the dreams seem to be all the same to me.
ROBBIE ROBERTSON

Some players are more physical than others, some play with more finesse. Some are just really great ...
OSCAR ROBERTSON

We're trying to infuse a little good into the American culture. Love God, love your neighbor, hu...
PHIL ROBERTSON

I would never treat anyone with disrespect just because they are different from me. We are all creat...
PHIL ROBERTSON

It ain't gun control we need; it's sin control.
SI ROBERTSON

Basically, I don't ever move too far past the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, because i...
PHIL ROBERTSON

Chuck Berry told me if it wasn't for Louis Jordan, he wouldn't have probably ever even got i...
ROBBIE ROBERTSON

I cite in my book countless examples of the foundational documents of the colonial period in America...
PAT ROBERTSON

Are we a Christian nation now? It's doubtful. But did we start out as one? Without question.
PAT ROBERTSON

I like the wild characters. I like the idea of being a character actor without being a character act...
BRITT ROBERTSON

People go through periods when things are dark and cloudy, and they talk dark and cloudy.
ROBBIE ROBERTSON

He is the god of epiphanies—sudden spiritual manifestations—and of transformation, and there is ...
ROBIN ROBERTSON

Some years later, Zeus and Hera were arguing about who got more pleasure from sex: men or women. To ...
ROBIN ROBERTSON

Sense is nonsense to a fool.
ROBIN ROBERTSON

What we understand is that society must allow room for the irrational, in healthy balance with the r...
ROBIN ROBERTSON

I enjoy almost all of the game we kill. I only like to eat game that I have cleaned. I guess duck an...
PHIL ROBERTSON

You see George Clooney, and you think he's suave and handsome and really charming, but he's ...
BRITT ROBERTSON

It's about 50 percent more fuel-efficient than vehicles of today. It's totally clean. Absolutely zer...
BERNARD ROBERTSON

We make no attempt to try to run the vehicle on the electric motor,
BERNARD ROBERTSON

People won't pay exclusively for fuel economy, ... The way to get this car to market is to make trad...
BERNARD ROBERTSON

People won't pay exclusively for fuel economy. The way to get this car to market is to make trade-of...
BERNARD ROBERTSON

Cricket will go on and we have a match on Friday. I don't have any further comment to make.
BERNARD ROBERTSON

Is there in all the history of human folly a greater fool than a clergymen in politics?
PAT ROBERTSON

Companies using electronic bill presentment generally achieve overall savings on their billing costs...
BETH ROBERTSON

After 9/11, families were looking for things to do together and fun that was closer to home, and tha...
BETH ROBERTSON

There are a lot of things in motion that will contribute to more bills being presented electronicall...
BETH ROBERTSON

One of the things we know is that this is a worldwide trend. It's not just in the United States.
BETH ROBERTSON

At this point, the market isn't that developed yet. Ten percent of all consumer bills will be presen...
BETH ROBERTSON

It was great, a fabulous year. It was different than any other market I've been through in 36 years....
BETH ROBERTSON

Companies using electronic bill presentment generally achieve overall savings on their billing costs...
BETH ROBERTSON

I'm not even a little bit talented at the red-carpet makeup thing, but recently I did learn how ...
BRITT ROBERTSON

I'm just really happy I can be a part of this.
ANN ROBERTSON

That was where we could be safe. Police could see us and we could see them.
ANN ROBERTSON

They were there more to control the city rather than rescue anyone.
ANN ROBERTSON

It's like we kind of screwed up.
ANN ROBERTSON

We learned a lot about ourselves today. There were a lot of positives that came out of today, and we...
AMY ROBERTSON

Our goal for both field hockey camps is to challenge the participants and to make sure that they hav...
AMY ROBERTSON

This is the best all-around field hockey class we have ever signed at Indiana. They possess a high l...
AMY ROBERTSON

There are times when I think that the reading I have done in the past has had no effect except to cloud my mind and make me indecisive

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Robertson Davies

There are times when I think that the reading I have done in the past has had no effect except to cloud my mind and make me indecisive

Robertson Davies

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