Robertson Davies

"Dreams are the blueprints of our deepest desires."

"Knowledge without wisdom is dangerous."

"The family that works together grows together."

"Every ending is a new beginning."

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

"A man of letters should have a very good memory, and should know how to use it."

"The remarkable thing about Shakespeare is that he is really very good—in spite of all the people who say he is very good."

"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment."

"Fathers are more appreciated as they get older, much like wine."

"The mind of man is capable of anything because everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future."

"Charm is a great thing, but it is also entirely superficial."

"To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person."

"The true object of all human life is play."

"We are dying from cynicism and faintheartedness and fear."

"It is a curious fact that in bad times the voice of the intelligentsia is loudest in demanding present comfort and less concerned about the future."

"Man cannot live by incompetence alone."

"The society of women is the element of good manners."

"A person is not finished when he is defeated; he is finished when he quits."

"We are not at the mercy of events but of how we respond to them."

"The principal benefit of a liberal education is to get rid of cant."

"Most people imagine they want things but do not really want them when it comes to a point of hard work."

"A man who has never made a woman angry is a failure in life."

"The world is full of people looking for spectacular happiness while they skip contentment."

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

"The growth of understanding follows an ascending spiral rather than a straight line."

"To be alive is to be vulnerable; to demand safety is to ask for stagnation."

"The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it."

"Age is not a matter of years; it is a matter of temperament and health."

"Comedy is tragedy that happens to other people."

"Disappointment is the nurse of wisdom."