"I expect that Hell is very heavily populated with just exactly that sort of person [who feels he's accomplished all his goals early in life] because, you know, somebody who fears that he has exhausted what there is for him to do and what he can do at thirty-five, is a fool. What he means is that he's become the sales manager of International Widgets or some wretched thing. That's not a life, that's not a thing that should occupy a man. People drive themselves terribly hard at these jobs, and they develop a sort of mystique about something which does not admit of a mystique. A thing to have a mystique must necessarily have many aspects, many corridors, many avenues, many things that open up. Well, this is not to be found in the business world, and I've known a lot of first-class businessmen and they all tell you this. People have told me that in their particular business there's nothing to be learned that an intelligent man can't learn in eighteen months. But if you've learned it in eighteen months and if you're exhausted by the time you're thirty-five, it's nobody's fault but your own if you haven't found something else to do."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Literary criticsAcademics from CanadaNovelists from CanadaPlaywrights from CanadaEditors from Canada
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
"Robertson Davies" [by Paul Soles]
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robertson_Davies
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
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
Related Quotes
"So, I was to talk about "Opera as Related to Literature", was I not? And because the subject is so vast, I have wandeβ¦"
"May I make a suggestion, hoping it is not an impertinence? Write it down: write down what you feel. It is sometimes aβ¦"
"The US, for historical reasons, mistrusts the concept of a welfare state, and this mistrust shows itself nakedly undeβ¦"
"What used to be called a Canadian novel was a kind of prairie frontier story, but it was phony. In the plot, people cβ¦"
"Modern disillusion is unlikely to last forever, and nothing rings so hollow as the angst of yesterday."
"The most dismaying call of this kind came one night at nine o'clock from a youth of sixteen who said: "I've got to haβ¦"
"The world does so well without me, that I am moved to wish that I could do equally well without the world."
"When I was born good fairies clustered round my cradle, showering me with wit, beauty, grace, freedom from dandruff, β¦"
"If you are an intellectual, your best course is to relax and enjoy it."
"Speakers' nerves affect them in various ways. Some tremble, some become frenzied. I lose all confidence, and suffer fβ¦"