“Art lies in understanding some part of the dark forces and bringing them under the direction of reason.”

— Robertson Davies, A Voice from the Attic (1960)

About Robertson Davies

1913 – 1995

Canadian novelist, playwright and critic.

“Work is a dangerous and destructive drug, and should be called by its right name, which is Fatigue.”

“Our age has robbed millions of the simplicity of ignorance, and has so far failed to lift them to the simplicity of wisdom.”

“The past is only partly irrecoverable.”

“Beauty is the mark God sets upon virtue.”

“Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.”

“A novel is never anything but a philosophy put into images.”

“A poet soaring in the high reason of his fancies, with his garland and singing robes about him.”

“Art is long, life short, judgment difficult, opportunity transient.”

“It is a beautiful truth that all men contain something of the artist in them.”