Not all readers are prepared, at all times, to make independent judgments. But the failure of modern education to equip them to do so even when they … - Robertson Davies

One of the things that puzzles me is that so few people want to look at life as a totality and to recognize that death is no more extraordinary than birth. When they say it's the end of everything they don't seem to recognize that we came from somewhere and it would be very, very strange indeed to suppose that we're not going somewhere.

During the years when my own daughters were pupils in this school I attended many of these gatherings, and heard many speeches made by men who stood where I stand at this moment. They said all sorts of things. I recall one speaker who said that as he looked out at the girls who were assembled to receive prizes, and to pay their last respects to their school, he felt as though he were looking over a garden of exquisite flowers. He was drunk, poor man, and it would be absurd to treat his remark as though he were speaking on oath.

— Nature and nurture are inextricable; only scientists and psychologists could think otherwise, and we know all about them, don't we? — We should. We've watched them since they were tribal wizards, yelping around the campfire. ...