E. M. Forster Quotes - Page 11

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I distrust Great Men... I believe in aristocracy, though... Its members are to be found in all nations and classes, and all through the ages, and there is a secret understanding between them when they meet... They are sensitive for others as well as for themselves, they are considerate without being fussy, their pluck is not swankiness but the power to endure, and they can take a joke.

E. M. Forster

Believe, Men, Class

"What I Believe". Essay by E. M. Forster, 1938.

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Not only in sex, but in all things men have moved blindly, have evolved out of slime to dissolve into it when this accident of consequences is over.

E. M. Forster

Life, Sex, Men

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We may divide characters into flat and round.

E. M. Forster

Character, Literature, May

E. M. Forster (2010). “Aspects of the Novel”, p.103, RosettaBooks

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English literature is a flying fish.

E. M. Forster

Fishing, Flying, Literature

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Solidity, caution, integrity, efficiency. Lack of imagination, hypocrisy. These qualities characterize the middle classes in everycountry, but in England they are national characteristics.

E. M. Forster

Integrity, Character, Class

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Italy is such a delightful place to live in if you happen to be a man. There one may enjoy that exquisite luxury of Socialism--that true Socialism which is based not on equality of income or character, but on the equality of manners. In the democracy of the caffè or the street the great question of our life has been solved, and the brotherhood of man is a reality. But it is accomplished at the expense of the sisterhood of women.

E. M. Forster

Character, Reality, Sisterhood

E. M. Forster (2016). “Where Angels Fear to Tread: England Literature”, p.31, 谷月社

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The so called white races are really pinko-grey.

E. M. Forster

White, Race, Grey

A Passage to India ch. 7 (1924)

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But nothing in India is identifiable, the mere asking of a question causes it to disappear or to merge in something else.

E. M. Forster

India, Asking, Literature

'A Passage to India' (1924) ch. 8

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Either life entails courage, or it ceases to be life.

E. M. Forster

Courage, Literature, Be Courageous

"Pharos and Pharillon" by E.M. Forster, 1923.

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Surely the only sound foundation for a civilization is a sound state of mind.

E. M. Forster

Civilization, Mind, Foundation

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

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I am so used to seeing the sort of play which deals with one man and two women. They do not leave me with the feeling I have made a full theatrical meal they do not give me the experience of the multiplicity of life.

E. M. Forster

Men, Two, Play

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The historian must have some conception of how men who are not historians behave. Otherwise he will move in a world of the dead. He can only gain that conception through personal experience, and he can only use his personal experiences when he is a genius.

E. M. Forster

Moving, Men, Gains

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I seem fated to pass through the world without colliding with it or moving it — and I'm sure I can't tell you whether the fate's good or evil. I don't die — I don't fall in love. And if other people die or fall in love they always do it when I'm just not there.

E. M. Forster

Falling In Love, Moving, Fate

E. M. Forster (2012). “Where Angels Fear to Tread”, p.96, Courier Corporation

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Take an old man's word; there's nothing worse than a muddle in all the world. It is easy to face Death and Fate, and the things that sound so dreadful. It is on my muddles that I look back with horror - on the things that I might have avoided. We can help one another but little. I used to think I could teach young people the whole of life, but I know better now, and all my teaching of George has come down to this: beware of muddle.

E. M. Forster

Teaching, Fate, Men

E.M. Forster (2016). “A Room With a View (Diversion Classics)”, p.224, Diversion Books

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Some leave our life with tears, others with an insane frigidity; Mrs. Wilcox had taken the middle course, which only rarer natures can pursue. She had kept proportion. She had told a little of her grim secret to her friends, but not too much; she had shut up her heart--almost, but not entirely. It is thus, if there is any rule, that we ought to die--neither as victim nor as fanatic, but as the seafarer who can greet with an equal eye the deep that he is entering, and the shore that he must leave.

E. M. Forster

Taken, Heart, Eye

E. M. Forster (2016). “Howards End: England Literature”, p.86, 谷月社

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Let us think of people as starting life with an experience they forget and ending it with one which they anticipate but cannot understand.

E. M. Forster

Thinking, People, Forget

E. M. Forster (2010). “Aspects of the Novel”, p.76, RosettaBooks

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I have almost completed a long novel, but it is unpublishable until my death and England's.

E. M. Forster

Long, England, Novel

"E. M. Forster: A New Life". Book by Wendy Moffat, p. 174, April 4, 2011.

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It was unbearable, and he thought again, 'How unhappy I am!' and became happier.

E. M. Forster

Unhappy, Unbearable

E. M. Forster (2010). “A Passage to India”, p.56, RosettaBooks

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One doesn't come to Italy for niceness," was the retort; "one comes for life. Buon giorno! Buon giorno!

E. M. Forster

Retorts, Niceness

E. M. Forster (2016). “A Room With A View: England Literature”, p.14, 谷月社

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An efficiency-regime cannot be run without a few heroes stuck about it to carry off the dullness - much as plums have to be put into bad pudding to make it palatable.

E. M. Forster

Running, Hero, Pudding

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

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Happiness in the ordinary sense is not what one needs in life, though one is right to aim at it. The true satisfaction is to come through, and see those whom one lives come through.

E. M. Forster

Life, Ordinary, Needs

Selected Letters (1983-1985): Letter 216, to Florence Barger, February 11, 1922.

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Personal relations are the important thing for ever and ever, and not this outer life of telegrams and anger.

E. M. Forster

Life, Relationship, Important

'Howards End' (1910) ch. 19

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In time, Mr Hall, one gets to recognize that sneer, that hardness, for fornication extends far beyond the actual deed. Were it a deed only, I for one would not hold it anathema. But when the nations went a whoring they invariably ended by denying God, I think, and until all sexual irregularities and not some of them are penal the Church will never reconquer England.

E. M. Forster

Atheist, Thinking, Church

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I know by experience that the poets are right: love is eternal.

E. M. Forster

Romantic, Love Is, Poet

E.M. Forster (2012). “A Room with a View”, p.166, Courier Corporation

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In the light of her son's comment she reconsidered the scene at the mosque, to see whose impression was correct. Yes it could be worked into quite an unpleasant scene. The doctor had begun by bullying her, had said Mrs Callendar was nice, and then - finding the ground safe - had changed; he had alternately whined over his grievances and patronized her, had run a dozen ways in a single sentence, had been unreliable, inquisitive, vain. Yes, it was all true, but how false as a summary of the man; the essential life of him had been slain.

E. M. Forster

Running, Bullying, Nice

"A Passage to India".

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Born: January 1, 1879
Died: June 7, 1970
Occupation: Novelist
Cite this Page: Citation

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