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Robertson Davies
(28 Aug 1913 - 2 Dec 1995)
Canadian writer, journalist and playwright who published dozens of works, including novels, short stories and plays. His style was imaginative and intellectually rich in a variety of literary disciplines. His interest in drama began in childhood, and he was a dramatist before later also becoming distinguished as a novelist.
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Science Quotes by Robertson Davies (3 quotes)
I don't really care how time is reckoned so long as there is some agreement about it, but I object to being told that I am saving daylight when my reason tells me that I am doing nothing of the kind. I even object to the implication that I am wasting something valuable if I stay in bed after the sun has risen. As an admirer of moonlight I resent the bossy insistence of those who want to reduce my time for enjoying it. At the back of the Daylight Saving scheme I detect the bony, blue-fingered hand of Puritanism, eager to push people into bed earlier, and get them up earlier, to make them healthy, wealthy and wise in spite of themselves.
— Robertson Davies
In The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks (1947), 75.
I would not for a moment have you suppose that I am one of those idiots who scorns Science, merely because it is always twisting and turning, and sometimes shedding its skin, like the serpent that is [the doctors'] symbol.
— Robertson Davies
From 'Can a Doctor Be a Humanist?' (1984). Collected in The Merry Heart: Reflections of Reading, Writing and the World of Books (1997), 98.
Very few [doctors] are men of science in any very serious sense; they're men of technique.
— Robertson Davies
Interview with Tom Harpur, 'You Should Face Up to Your Death, Says Author', Toronto Star (15 Nov 1975). Collected in Robertson Davies and J. Madison Davis (eds.) Conversations with Robertson Davies (1989), 157.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
