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E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quotes

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“Why has not England a great mythology? Our folklore has never advanced beyond daintiness, and the greater melodies about our country-side have all issued through the pipes of Greece. Deep and true as the native imagination can be, it seems to have failed here. It has stopped with the witches and the fairies. It cannot vivify one fraction of a summer field, or give names to half a dozen stars. England still waits for the supreme moment of her literature—for the great poet who shall voice her, or, better still for the thousand little poets whose voices shall pass into our common talk.”

PoetryEnglandMythologyWitchesFairiesMythsTolkien
Book:Howards End
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“Society is invincible—to a certain degree. But your real life is your own, and nothing can touch it. There is no power on earth that can prevent your criticizing and despising mediocrity—nothing that can stop you retreating into splendour and beauty—into the thoughts and beliefs that make the real life—the real you." "I have never had that experience yet. Surely I and my life must be where I live." Evidently she had the usual feminine incapacity for grasping philosophy. But she had developed quite a personality, and he must see more of her. "There is another great consolation against invincible mediocrity," he said—"the meeting a fellow-victim".”

Society
Book:WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD Annotated book
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“A male—even such a male as Tibby—was enough to stop the foolery. The barrier of sex, though decreasing among the civilised, is still high, and higher on the side of women. Helen could tell her sister all, and her cousin much about Paul; she told her brother nothing. It was not prudishness, for she now spoke of “the Wilcox ideal” with laughter, and even with a growing brutality. Nor was it precaution, for Tibby seldom repeated any news that did not concern himself. It was rather the feeling that she betrayed a secret into the camp of men, and that, however trivial it was on this side of the barrier, it would become important on that. So she stopped, or rather began to fool on other subjects, until her long-suffering relatives drove her upstairs.”

Sibilings
Book:Howards End
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“[...] it is right to be kind and even sacrifice ourselves to people who need kindness and lie in our way - otherwise, besides failing to help them, we run into the aridity of self-development. To seek for recipients of one's goodness, to play the Potted Jesus leads to the contray the Christian danger.”

PeopleWayNeedsKindSelfPlayHelpingRunningChristianLyingJesusKindnessFailingSacrificeDangerDevelopmentGoodnessBe KindSelf Development
Book:Commonplace Book
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“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.”

HumansSaidBookHappensPainLife IsSpiritSocialEnjoyPleasureInterestingExistencePeriodsThings HappenObligationDullDistinctionHuman SpiritThrillingObligedSlumberPain And PleasureCocoonsInsincereSocial Obligation
Author:E. M. Forster
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“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.”

WellsMeanWarSelfActionFormOrderSocialDutyInternationalChosenSymbolsFascismRighteousBrutalityBlacknessWithout HopeSelf RighteousTubsSmartnessTinkering
Author:E. M. Forster
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“As for 'story' I never yet did enjoy a novel or play in which someone didn't tell me afterward that there was something wrong with the story, so that's going to be no drawback as far as I'm concerned. "Good Lord, why am I so bored" "I know; it must be the plot developing harmoniously." So I often reply to myself, and there rises before me my special nightmare that of the writer as craftsman, natty and deft.”

KnowsPlayStoriesEnjoyLordNovelSpecialConcernedDevelopingBoredNightmarePlotCraftsmanDrawbacksSo Bored
Author:E. M. Forster
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“The story of the Fall always fascinates me as a play ground, but I cannot find any profound meaning in it, because of my 'liberal' view of human nature: I cannot believe in a state of original innocence, still less in a profound meaning in it, and I am always minimising the conception and the extent of Sin and the sinfulness of sex.”

BelieveHumansStillsStatesPlayStoriesFallSexSinViewsHuman NatureOriginalsProfoundInnocenceConceptionSinfulness
Author:E. M. Forster
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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.”

MenBelieveWellsAgeFoundI BelieveNationsUnderstandingSecretClassMembersJokesEndureI Believe InSensitiveGreat MenDistrustAristocracyPluckConsiderateFussy
Author:E. M. Forster
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