Quote

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

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Robertson Davies
Age: 82 †
Born: 1913
Born: August 28
Died: 1995
Died: December 3
Journalist
Literary Critic
Musicologist
Novelist
Playwright
Professor
Reporter
Writer
William Robertson Davies
Discovery
Inhibit
Civilization
Voluntary
Produce
Rests
Ability
Splendid
Two
Occasion
Without
Produces
Things
Civilized
Splendidly
Would
Alcohol
Fermentation

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The critic is the duenna in the passionate affair between playwrights, actors and audiences - a figure dreaded, and occasionally comic, but never welcome, never loved.
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It is odd how all men develop the notion, as they grow older, that their mothers were wonderful cooks. I have yet to meet a man who will admit that his mother was a kitchen assassin and nearly poisoned him.
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The wit of a graduate student is like champagne. Canadian champagne.
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It is a waste of time to dissipate one's moral zeal in disapproving of royal persons who have mistresses.
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On the whole, we treat the Devil shamefully, and the worse we treat Him the more He laughs at us.
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A big man is always accused of gluttony, whereas a wizened or osseous man can eat like a refugee at every meal, and no one ever notices his greed.
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Let people alone. Let them find their way. Let them find their level and you may sometimes be delighted and astonished at the extraordinary high level to which they'll rise if they're let alone.
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The clerisy are those who seek, and find, delight and enlargement of life in books. The clerisy are those for whom reading is a personal art.
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In the end, it is upon the quality and commitment of individuals that all group movements depend.
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Tristan and Isolde were lucky to die when they did. They'd have been sick of all that rubbish in a year.
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In a government like ours, the Crown is the abiding and unshakable element in government politicians may come and go, but the Crown remains and certain aspects of our system pertain to it which are not dependent on any political party. In this sense, the Crown is the consecrated spirit of Canada.
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Whoever declares a child to be delicate thereby crowns and anoints a tyrant.
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One of the things that puzzles me is that so few people want to look at life as a totality and to recognize that death is no more extraordinary than birth. When they say it's the end of everything they don't seem to recognize that we came from somewhere and it would be very, very strange indeed to suppose that we're not going somewhere.
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The most original thing a writer can do is write like himself. It is also his most difficult task.
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The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.
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In India it is regarded as a good idea to dart in front of an oncoming car, for the car is sure to kill the evil spirits who are pursuing you, and all the rest of your life you will have good luck.
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You're all mad for words. Words are just farts from a lot of fools who have swallowed too many books. Give me things!
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We mistrust anything that too strongly challenges our ideal of mediocrity.
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Love affairs are for emotional sprinters the pleasures of love are for the emotional marathoners.
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That's the nub of the thing, you see seriousness of spirit. It doesn't mean heaviness of heart, or a lack of fantasy, but it does mean an awareness of influences that touch our lives, sometimes in ways that seem cruel and unfeeling, and sometimes in ways that open up a glory which can never be forgotten.
Robertson Davies