"But I wonder if people do not attach too much importance to the first-name habit? Every man and woman is a mystery, built like those Chinese puzzles which consist of one box inside another, so that ten or twelve boxes have to be opened before the final solution is found. Not more than two or three people have ever penetrated beyond my outside box, and there are not many people whom I have explored further; if anyone imagines that being on first-name terms with somebody magically strips away all the boxes and reveals the inner treasure he still has a great deal to learn about human nature. There are people, of course, who consist only of one box, and that a cardboard carton, containing nothing at all."
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Literary criticsAcademics from CanadaNovelists from CanadaPlaywrights from CanadaEditors from Canada
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Robertson Davies
Robertson Davies CC (August 28 1913 β December 2 1995) was a Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist and professor.
260 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Robertson Davies β
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