# Robertson Davies - Quotes: 155 - Author page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies ## Books - [The Cornish Trilogy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-cornish-trilogy.md) — 56 quotes - [The Cunning Man](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-cunning-man.md) — 12 quotes - [The Deptford Trilogy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-deptford-trilogy.md) — 47 quotes - [The Salterton Trilogy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-salterton-trilogy.md) — 40 quotes ## Recently added quotes > There are no great performances without great audiences, and this is the barrier that film and television, by their utmost efforts, cannot cross, for there can be no interaction between what is done, and those to whom it is done. Great theatre, great music-drama, is created again and again on both sides of the footlights. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-cornish-trilogy/there-are-no-great.md) > Catholicism has begotten much great art; Protestantism none at all – not a single painting. But Catholicism has fostered art in the very teeth of Christianity. The Kingdom of Christ, if it ever comes, will contain no art; Christ never showed the least concern with it. His church has inspired much but not because of anything the Master said. Who then was the inspirer? The much-maligned Devil, one supposes. It is he who understands and ministers to man's carnal and intellectual self, and art is carnal and intellectual. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-cornish-trilogy/catholicism-has-begotten.md) > Whoever lives in the finest house in a small Canadian town dwells in a House of Atreus, about which a part of the community harbours the darkest mythical suspicions...In lesser houses there may be fighting, covert abortions, children "touched up" with a hot flat-iron to make them obedient, every imaginable aspect of parsimony, incest, and simple, persistent cruelty, but these are nothing to whatever seems amiss at the Big House. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-cornish-trilogy/whoever-lives-in-the.md) > Like a true university woman she set out on a criticism of the words which was rooted in what she had been taught; she had a critical system, unfailing in its power to reduce poetry to technicalities and to slide easily over its content. It was a system which, properly applied, could put Homer in his place and turn the Sonnets of Shakespeare into critic-fodder. Without intending to be so, it was a system which, once mastered, set the possessor free forever, should that be his wish, from anything a poet, however noble in spirit, might have felt and imparted to the world. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-cornish-trilogy/like-a-true.md) > She knew enough about the McRorys to hang them, she told herself, but she held her tongue. Judge not that ye be not judged. Of course, you can't be a Calvinist without judging, but as a Calvinist you know what God's ordinances are, so it isn't really judging. It's just knowing right from wrong. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-cornish-trilogy/she-knew-enough.md) > Did you ever hear such enthusiasm? In Canada, I mean, the Home of Modified Rapture. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-cornish-trilogy/did-you-ever.md) > "I was saying precisely that to my wife this morning at breakfast." > > "And what did she say?" > > "I think she said Yes dear, and went on making a list for her shopping. But that's beside the point…" [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-cornish-trilogy/i-was-saying.md) > "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. "If only there were more Mirth in the message He has left to us. We miss it sadly, in the world we have made." [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-cornish-trilogy/no-it-is-in-the.md) > It was a man's mind, the size of a house. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-cornish-trilogy/it-was-a-mans.md) > "That is what lends splendour to a university," said the Warden. "Not these dreadful interruptions of the natural order." > > "You lean always toward the light, Warden; perhaps both are necessary, for completeness." [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-cornish-trilogy/that-is-what.md) > I have thought a good deal about trees; I like them. They speak eloquently of the balanced dubiety which I told you was the sceptical attitude. No splendid crown without the strong root that works in the dark, drawing its nourishment among the rocks, the soil, hidden waters, and all the little, burrowing things. A man is like that; his splendours and his fruits are to be seen, to win him love and admiration. But what about the root? > > Have you ever seen a bulldozer clearing land? It advances upon a great tree and shoves and pushes inexorably until the tree is down and thrust out of the way, and all of that effort is accompanied by a screaming and wrenching sounds from the tree as the great roots are torn from the ground. It is a particularly distressing kind of death. And when the tree is upturned, the root proves to be as big as the crown. > > What is the root of man? All sorts of things that nourish his visible part, but the deepest root of all, the tap-root, is that child he once was, of which I spoke to you when I was amusing you with the story of my life. That is the root which goes deepest because it is reaching downward towards the ancestors. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-cornish-trilogy/i-have-thought.md) > In the minds of politicians, perhaps more than anywhere, the notion of a million dollars has this accordion-like ability to expand or contract; if they are disposing of it, the million is a pleasing sum, reflecting warmly upon themselves; if somebody else wants it, it becomes a figure of inordinate size, not to be compassed by the rational mind. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-cornish-trilogy/in-the-minds.md)