“Every man's death is, literally, the end of a world if he dies without hope.”

— 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.”

“Were there no men of vision, all who are blind would be dead.”

“Death is not the worst evil, but rather when we wish to die and cannot.”

“Does the imagination dwell the most Upon a woman won or woman lost?”

“Anyone who is among the living has hope--even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!”

“We sometimes congratulate ourselves at the moment of waking from a troubled dream: it may be so the moment after death.”

“To eat bread without hope is still slowly to starve to death.”