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E. M. Forster Quotes - Page 5

All Quotes Adventure Age Art Atheism Belief Character Children Creativity Criticism Culture Curiosity Darkness Democracy Desire Earth Evil Fate Feelings Fighting Friendship Giving Heart Heaven Hills History Home Horror House Human Nature Husband Imagination Inspirational Joy Judging Language Life Literature Logic Love Luck Lying Memories Passion Past Poetry Reading Romance Romantic Love Running Sleep Society Sorrow Soul Stupidity Sunshine Teaching Tolerance Understanding Universe Values War Writing

People have their own deaths as well as their own lives, and even if there is nothing beyond death, we shall differ in our nothingness.

People have their own deaths as well as their own lives, and even if there is nothing beyond death, we shall differ in our nothingness.

People, Howards End, Wells

E.M. Forster (2015). “Howard's End”, p.284, Xist Publishing

A poem is true if it hangs together. Information points to something else. A poem points to nothing but itself.

Poetry, Together, Literature

Two Cheers for Democracy "Anonymity: An Enquiry" (1951)

But Humanity, in its desire for comfort, had over-reached itself. It had exploited the riches of nature too far. Quietly and complacently, it was sinking into decadence, and progress had come to mean the progress of the Machine.

Mean, Humanity, Progress

E. M. Forster (2015). “The Machine Stops”, p.23, Simon and Schuster

It is impossible to foretell the future with any degree of accuracy, that it is impossible to rehearse life. A fault in the scenery, a face in the audience, an interruption of the audience on to the stage, and all our carefully planned gesture mean nothing, or mean too much.

Mean, Degrees, Gestures

Do not be proud of your inconsistency. It is a pity, it is a pity that we should be equipped like this. It is a pity that Man cannot be at the same time impressive and truthful.

Men, Proud, Truthful

E. M. Forster (2010). “Aspects of the Novel”, p.212, RosettaBooks

I believe we shall come to care about people less and less, Helen. The more people one knows, the easier it becomes to replace them. It's one of the curses of London. I quite expect to end my life caring most for a place.

Believe, Caring, People

E. M. Forster (2013). “Delphi Collected Works of E. M. Forster (Illustrated)”, p.624, Delphi Classics

Most of life is so dull that there is nothing to be said about it, and the books and talks that would describe it as interesting are obliged to exaggerate, in the hope of justifying their own existence. Inside its cocoon of work or social obligation, the human spirit slumbers for the most part, registering the distinction between pleasure and pain, but not nearly as alert as we pretend. There are periods in the most thrilling day during which nothing happens, and though we continue to exclaim, "I do enjoy myself", or , "I am horrified," we are insincere.

Pain, Book, Interesting

'A Passage to India' (1924) ch. 14

The work of art assumes the existence of the perfect spectator, and is indifferent to the fact that no such person exists.

Art, Perfect, Facts

E.M. Forster (1951). “Two Cheers for Democracy”

Art for art's sake? I should think so, and more so than ever at the present time. It is the one orderly product which our middling race has produced. It is the cry of a thousand sentinels, the echo from a thousand labyrinths, it is the lighthouse which cannot be hidden. It is the best evidence we can have of our dignity.

Art, Thinking, Echoes

Liking one person is an extra reason for liking another.

Liking Someone, Literature, Reason

E.M. Forster (2016). “A Room With a View (Diversion Classics)”, p.83, Diversion Books

All men are equal — all men, that is to say, who possess umbrellas.

Men, Umbrella, Equal

"Collected Works of E. M. Forster".

Like all her friends, I miss her greatly...But...I am sure there is no case for lamentation...Virginia Woolf got through an immense amount of work, she gave acute pleasure in new ways, she pushed the light of the English language a little further against darkness. Those are facts.

Virginia, Light, Missing

The people I respect most behave as if they were immortal and as if society was eternal.

People, Society, Literature

E.M. Forster (1951). “Two Cheers for Democracy”

She must be assured that it is not a criminal offense to love at first sight.

Sight, Criminals, Firsts

Expansion, that is the idea the novelist must cling to, not completion, not rounding off, but opening out.

Writing, Ideas, Novelists

E M Forster (2016). “Aspects of the Novel”, p.143, Hachette UK

It was pleasant to wake up in Florence, to open the eyes upon a bright bare room, with a floor of red tiles which look clean though they are not; with a painted ceiling whereon pink griffins and blue amorini sport in a forest of yellow violins and bassoons. It was pleasant, too, to fling wide the windows, pinching the fingers in unfamiliar fastenings, to lean out into sunshine with beautiful hills and trees and marble churches opposite, and, close below, Arno, gurgling against the embankment of the road.

Beautiful, Sports, Eye

E. M. Forster (2013). “Delphi Collected Works of E. M. Forster (Illustrated)”, p.361, Delphi Classics

When love flies it is remembered not as love but as something else. Blessed are the uneducated, who forget it entirely, and are never conscious of folly or pruriency in the past, of long aimless conversations.

Blessed, Past, Long

"Maurice". Book by E. M. Forster, part two, 1971.

School was the unhappiest time of my life and the worst trick it ever played on me was to pretend that it was the world in miniature. For it hindered me from discovering how lovely and delightful and kind the world can be, and how much of it is intelligible.

School, Lovely, World

A happy ending was imperative. I shouldn't have bothered to write otherwise. I was determined that in fiction anyway two men should fall in love and remain in it for the ever and ever that fiction allows, and in this sense, Maurice and Alec still roam the greenwood.

Falling In Love, Writing, Men

"To a Happier Year" by Peter Fulham, www.newyorker.com. June 26, 2013.

So, two cheers for Democracy: one because it admits variety and two because it permits criticism.

Cheer, Democracies Have, Two

Two Cheers for Democracy "What I Believe" (1951)

She had been so wicked that in all her life she had done only one good deed-given an onion to a beggar. So she went to hell. As she lay in torment she saw the onion, lowered down from heaven by an angel. She caught hold of it. He began to pull her up. The other damned saw what was happening and caught hold of it too. She was indignant and cried, "Let go-it's my onion," and as soon as she said, "my onion," the stalk broke and she fell back into the flames.

Letting Go, Angel, Flames

No one is more triumphant than the man who chooses a worthy subject and masters all its facts.

Men, Facts, He Man

E. M. Forster (2010). “Aspects of the Novel”, p.22, RosettaBooks

For it is a serious thing to have been watched. We all radiate something curiously intimate when we believe ourselves to be alone.

Believe, Serious Things, Intimate

E. M. Forster (2013). “Delphi Collected Works of E. M. Forster (Illustrated)”, p.95, Delphi Classics

It was not that ladies were inferior to men; it was that they were different. Their mission was to inspire others to achievement rather than to achieve themselves. Indirectly, by means of tact and a spotless name, a lady could accomplish much. But if she rushed into the fray herself she would be first censured, then despised, and finally ignored.

Mean, Men, Names

E. M. Forster (2013). “Delphi Collected Works of E. M. Forster (Illustrated)”, p.381, Delphi Classics

Most of life is so dull that there is nothing to be said about it, and the books and talk that would describe it as interesting are obliged to exaggerate, in the hope of justifying their own existence.

Book, Interesting, Literature

'A Passage to India' (1924) ch. 14

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