Top E. M. Forster Quotes - Quotesmemo.com

E. M. Forster Biography

Edward Morgan Forster OM CH (1 January 1879 – 7 June 1970) was an English novelist, short story writer, essayist and librettist. Many of his novels examined class difference and hypocrisy in early 20th-century British society, notably A Room with a View (1908), Howards End (1910), and A Passage to India (1924), which brought him his greatest success. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 16 different years.

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E. M. Forster Quotes

There is fascism , leading only into the blackness which it has chosen as its symbol, into smartness and yapping out of orders,and self-righteous brutality, into social as well as international war. It means change without hope. Our immediate duty- in that tinkering which is the only useful form of action in our leaky old tub-our immediate duty is to stop it.

Action, International, Mean, Self, Smartness, War

I'm a holy man minus the holiness. Hand that on to your three spies, and tell them to put it in their pipes.

Hands, Holiness, Men, Pipes, Spy, Tell

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.

Book, Interesting, Obliged, Pain, Part, Periods

I distrust Great Men. They produce a desert of uniformity around them and often a pool of blood too, and I always feel a little man's pleasure when they come a cropper.

Blood, Come, Distrust, Greatness, Men, Produce

Railway termini are our gates to the glorious and the unknown. Through them we pass out into adventure and sunshine, to them, alas! we return.

Adventure, Glorious, Pass, Sunshine, Termini, Travel

It is fate that I am here,' George persisted, 'but you can call it Italy if it makes you less unhappy.

Fate, Italy, Persisted, Room With A View, Unhappy

I'm a holy man minus the holiness.

Holiness, Literature, Man, Men, Minus

I'd far rather leave a thought behind me than a child. Other people can have children.

Behinds, Child, Children, Leave, People

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, Dignity, Echoes, Orderly, Thinking, Thousand

The businessman who assumes that his life is everything, and the mystic who asserts that it is nothing, fail, on this side and on that, to hit the truth. ‘Yes, I see, dear; it’s about half-way between,’ Aunt Juley had hazarded in earlier years. No; truth, being alive, was not halfway between anything. It was only to be found by continuous excursions into either realm, and though proportion is the final secret, to espouse it at the outset is to ensure sterility.

Aunt, Hazarded, Realm, Secret, Side, Years

To make us feel small in the right way is a function of art; men can only make us feel small in the wrong way.

Art, Creative, Men, Small

Self-pity ? I see no moral objections to it, the smell drives people away, but that's a practical objection, and occasionally an advantage.

Advantage, Away, Objection, People, Self, Smell

It is obvious enough for the reader to conclude, "She loves young Emerson. " A reader in Lucy's place would not find it obvious. Life is easy to chronicle, but bewildering to practice, and we welcome "nerves" or any other shibboleth that will cloak our personal desire. She loved Cecil; George made her nervous; will the reader explain to her that the phrases should have been reversed?

Desire, Loves, Place, Practice, Shibboleth, Should Have

He doesn't want you to be real, and to think and to live. He doesn't love you. But I love you. I want you to have your own thoughts and ideas and feelings, even when I hold you in my arms.

Hold, Love You, Real, Romantic Love, Think, Thoughts

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

Faith, Individual, Literature, People

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.

Avoided, Fate, Men, Old, Teaching, Think

You confuse what's important with what's impressive.

Confuse, Important, Impressive, What'S Important

My conviction gains infinitely the moment another soul will believe in it.

Believe, Conviction, Gains, Infinitely, Moment, Soul

England has always been disinclined to accept human nature.

Accept, Disinclined, England, Human Nature, Literature, Nature

Sometimes I think too much fuss is made about marriage. Century after century of carnal embracement and we're still no nearer to understanding one another.

Carnal, Fuss, Thinking, Too Much, Understanding

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