Quotessence
Home / Authors / E. M. Forster
E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quotes

Novelist

Filter quotes by topic

AllLiteratureMenIfsPeopleRoom With A ViewHowards EndWorldHumansKnowsThinking

Famous E. M. Forster Quotes

“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 thethings that I might have avoided.”

LooksMightFacesEasySoundFateHorrorDisorderAvoidedMuddleRoom With A View
Book:Great Novels of E. M. Forster: Where Angels Fear to Tread, The Longest Journey, A Room with a View, Howards End
Create image

“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.”

IfsMenMayHas BeensCharacterRealityHappensEnjoyDemocracyOur LivesStreetsIncomeSocialismLuxuryMannersAccomplishedExpensesBrotherhoodDelightfulBe A ManExquisiteSisterhoodPlaces To LiveBrotherhood Of Man
Book:Where Angels Fear to Tread: England Literature
Create image

“One grows accustomed to being praised, or being blamed, or being advised, but it is unusual to be understood.”

GrowsUnderstoodUnusualAccustomed
Book:E.M. Forster: a Tribute. With Selections from His Writings on India. Edited, and with an Introd. by K. Natwar-Singh. Contributors: Ahmed Ali [and Others.]
Create image

“Even a fellow with a camera has his favourite subjects, as we can see looking through the Kodak-albums of our friends. One amateur prefers the family group, another bathing scenes, another cows upon an alp, or kittens held upside down in the arms of a black-faced child. The tendency to choose one subject rather than another indicates the photographer's temperament. Nevertheless, his passion is for photography rather than for selection, a kitten will serve when no cows are available.”

ChildrenPassionBlackGroupsSubjectsArmsScenePhotographyCamerasFellowsPhotographerAlbumsAvailableTendenciesCowsFavouriteNeverthelessSelectionTemperamentUpside DownKittenBathingAlpsKodak
Author:E. M. Forster
Create image

“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.”

WayYearsLife IsFoundSidesSecretHalfAliveFailingAssumingFinalsDearRealmsProportionBusinessmanAuntHalfwayMysticHalf WayExcursions
Book:Great Novels of E. M. Forster: Where Angels Fear to Tread, The Longest Journey, A Room with a View, Howards End
Create image

“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.”

PeopleThinkingKnowsMenWorldLooksLittlesWholeHelpingMightFacesYoungUsedEasySoundTeachFateTeachingHorrorOld ManAvoidedBetter NowMuddle
Book:A Room With a View (Diversion Classics)
Create image

“In Europe life retreats out of the cold, and exquisite fireside myths have resulted—Balder, Persephone—but [in India] the retreat is from the source of life, the treacherous sun, and no poetry adorns it because disillusionment cannot be beautiful. Men yearn for poetry though they may not confess it; they desire that joy shall be graceful and sorrow august and infinity have a form, and India fails to accommodate them.”

MenMayBeautifulFormJoyDesireSunFailingSourceColdSorrowEuropeIndiaMythInfinityRetreatExquisiteAugustAccommodateDisillusionmentTreacherousSource Of LifePersephone
Author:E. M. Forster
Create image

“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.”

LooksEyeBeautifulSportsChurchRoomsTreeRedWindowOppositesWake UpBlueCleanFingersWideForestsHillsPleasantSunshineYellowCeilingsViolinMarbleUnfamiliarFlingFlorenceTilesPinchingBassoon
Book:Delphi Collected Works of E. M. Forster (Illustrated)
Create image

“The present flowed by them like a stream. The tree rustled. It had made music before they were born, and would continue after their deaths, but its song was of the moment. The moment had passed. The tree rustled again. Their senses were sharpened, and they seemed to apprehend life. Life passed. The tree rustled again.”

MadeMomentsSongBornTreeSensesStreamsHowards End
Book:Delphi Collected Works of E. M. Forster (Illustrated)
Create image