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E. M. Forster Quotes about Literature

All E. M. Forster 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 quotes 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
How can I know what I think till I see what I say?

How can I know what I think till I see what I say?

E. M. Forster
Writing, Thinking, Literature

Nonsense and beauty have close connections.

E. M. Forster
Beauty, Connections, Literature
E. M. Forster (2013). “Delphi Collected Works of E. M. Forster (Illustrated)”, p.223, Delphi Classics

Think before you speak is criticism's motto; speak before you think, creation's.

E. M. Forster
Thinking, Criticism, Literature
Two Cheers for Democracy (1951) "Raison d'ˆtre of Criticism"

What is wonderful about great literature is that it transforms the man who reads it towards the condition of the man who wrote.

E. M. Forster
Reading, Men, Literature
E.M. Forster (1951). “Two Cheers for Democracy”

I have no mystic faith in the people. I have in the individual.

E. M. Forster
People, Literature, Individual
E.M. Forster (1951). “Two Cheers for Democracy”

I'm a holy man minus the holiness.

E. M. Forster
Men, Literature, Holiness
E. M. Forster (2010). “A Passage to India”, p.121, RosettaBooks

Love is always being given where it is not required.

E. M. Forster
Love, Love Is, Literature
Selected Letters: Letter 137, to Syed Ross Masood, December 5, 1914.

Love and understand the Italians, for the people are more marvellous than the land.

E. M. Forster
Land, People, Literature
E. M. Forster (2013). “Delphi Collected Works of E. M. Forster (Illustrated)”, p.16, Delphi Classics

Life is easy to chronicle, but bewildering to practice.

E. M. Forster
Practice, Literature, Life Is
E.M. Forster (2016). “A Room With a View (Diversion Classics)”, p.158, Diversion Books

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

E. M. Forster
Poetry, Together, Literature
Two Cheers for Democracy "Anonymity: An Enquiry" (1951)

Liking one person is an extra reason for liking another.

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

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

E. M. Forster
People, Society, Literature
E.M. Forster (1951). “Two Cheers for Democracy”

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.

E. M. Forster
Book, Interesting, Literature
'A Passage to India' (1924) ch. 14

The more highly public life is organized the lower does its morality sink.

E. M. Forster
Organization, Doe, Literature
"What I Believe". Essay by E. M. Forster, "The Nation", July 16, 1938.

History develops, art stands still.

E. M. Forster
Art, History, Literature
E. M. Forster (2010). “Aspects of the Novel”, p.39, RosettaBooks

Reverence is fatal to literature.

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

Charm, in most men and nearly all women, is a decoration.

E. M. Forster
Men, Literature, Charm
"The BBC Talks of E.M. Forster, 1929-1960: A Selected Edition". Book by Edward Morgan Forster, p. 448, 2008.

There is something majestic in the bad taste of Italy.

E. M. Forster
Literature, Taste, Majestic
E. M. Forster (2016). “Where Angels Fear to Tread: England Literature”, p.81, 谷月社

The sort of poetry I seek only resides in objects Man can't touch - like England 's grass network of lanes 100 years ago, but today he can destroy them and only Lord Farrer keeps him from doing it.

E. M. Forster
Men, Literature, Objects
"Commonplace Book".

Only a writer who has the sense of evil can make goodness readable.

E. M. Forster
Evil, Literature, Goodness
E. M. Forster (1987). “Commonplace Book”, p.18, Stanford University Press

The English countryside, its growth and its destruction, is a genuine and tragic theme.

E. M. Forster
Growth, Literature, Destruction

It is the vice of a vulgar mind to be thrilled by bigness.

E. M. Forster
Mind, Vices, Literature
E.M. Forster (2015). “Howard's End”, p.28, Xist Publishing

England has always been disinclined to accept human nature.

E. M. Forster
Literature, England, Human Nature
E M Forster (2011). “Maurice”, p.175, Hachette UK

It is my fate and perhaps my temperament to sign agreements with fools.

E. M. Forster
Fate, Agreement, Literature

Ideas are fatal to caste.

E. M. Forster
Technology, Ideas, Literature
E. M. Forster (2010). “A Passage to India”, p.62, RosettaBooks

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