Authors like cats because they are such quiet, lovable, wise creatures, and cats like authors for the same reasons.
Robertson DaviesRead
This is the Great Theatre of Life. Admission is free, but the taxation is mortal. You come when you can, and leave when you must. The show is continuous. Goodnight.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Life is a performance where everyone participates and faces mortality as the ultimate cost.
Robertson Davies metaphorically compares life to a great theater, emphasizing that while anyone can join the experience for free, the inevitable end that comes with mortality serves as a profound tax. He conveys the idea that life is an ongoing show, marked by both participation and the reality of leaving it behind, inviting a reflective appreciation for the fleeting nature of existence.
Themes
LifeTheatreMortalityPerformanceExistence
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech at a graduation ceremony, to inspire students about the journey of life.
More from Robertson Davies
All quotes βPessimism is a very easy way out because it is a short view of life. If you look at what is happening around us today, you can't help but feel that life is a terrible complexity of problems. But if you look back a few thousand years, you realize that we have advanced fantastically. If you take a long view, I do not see how you can be pessimistic about the future of mankind.
Robertson DaviesRead
This is one of the cruelties of the theatre of life; we all think of ourselves as stars and rarely recognize it when we are indeed mere supporting characters or even supernumeraries.
Robertson DaviesRead
Everything matters. The Universe is approximately fifteen billion years old, and I swear that in all that time, nothing has ever happened that has not mattered, has not contributed in some way to the totality.
Robertson DaviesRead
The egotist is all surface; underneath is a pulpy mess and a lot of self-doubt. But the egoist may be yielding and even deferential in things he doesn't consider important; in anything that touches his core he is remorseless.
Robertson DaviesRead
The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to the idealized past.
Robertson DaviesRead
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