Robertson Davies - World of Wonders (1975)

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All mothers think their children are oaks, but the world never lacks for cabbages.

Robertson Davies
The magician Merlin had a strange laugh, and it was heard when nobody else was laughing.... He laughed because he knew what was coming next.

Robertson Davies
You're all mad for words. Words are just farts from a lot of fools who have swallowed too many books. Give me things!

Robertson Davies
Boredom and stupidity and patriotism, especially when combined, are three of the greatest evils of the world we live in.

Robertson Davies
They're all so highly educated, you know. Education is a great shield against experience. It offers so much, ready-made and all from the best shops, that there's a temptation to miss your own life in pursuing the lives of your betters. It makes you wise in some ways, but it can make you a blindfolded fool in others.

Robertson Davies
Vaudeville audiences... could give the loudest sighs I have ever heard. Prisoners in the Bastille couldn't have touched them.

Robertson Davies
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.

Robertson Davies
A sense of wonder is in itself a religious feeling. But in so many people the sense of wonder gets lost. It gets scarred over. It's as though a tortoise shell has grown over it. People reach a stage where they're never surprised, never delighted. They're never suddenly aware of glorious freedom or splendour in their lives. This is very unhappy, very unfortunate. The attitude is often self-induced. It is fear. People are afraid to be happy.

Robertson Davies
And why should it not be terrifying? A little terror, in my view, is good for the soul, when it is terror in the face of a noble object.

Robertson Davies
I don't suppose God laughs at the people who think He doesn't exist. He's above jokes. But the devil isn't. That's one of his most endearing qualities.

Robertson Davies