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E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quotes

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Famous E. M. Forster Quotes

“How can the mind take hold of such a country? Generations of invaders have tried, but they remain in exile. The important towns they build are only retreats, their quarrels the malaise of men who cannot find their way home. India knows of their trouble. She knows of the whole world's trouble, to its uttermost depth. She calls "Come" through her hundred mouths, through objects ridiculous and august. But come to what? She has never defined. She is not a promise, only an appeal.”

KnowsMenWorldWayMindImportantCountryWholeHomeGenerationsTroubleObjectsPromiseMouthsHundredIndiaTownsDepthRidiculousWhole WorldDefinedAppealsRetreatExileQuarrelsAugustWay HomeInvadersMalaise
Book:A Passage to India
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“I am a Jane Austenite, and therefore slightly imbecile about Jane Austen. My fatuous expression, and airs of personal immunity-how ill they sit on the face, say,of a Stevensonian! But Jane Austen is so different. She is my favourite author! I read and reread, the mouth open and the mind closed. Shut up in measureless content, I greet her by the name of most kind hostess, while criticism slumbers.”

MindKindDifferentFacesNamesAirExpressionMouthsCriticismIllFavouriteShut UpJaneSlumberImmunityAustenImbecilesHostesses
Author:E. M. Forster
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“The tragedy of preparedness has scarcely been handled, save by the Greeks. Life is indeed dangerous, but not in the way morality would have us believe. It is indeed unmanageable, but the essence of it is not a battle. It is unmanageable because it is a romance, and its essence is romantic beauty.”

WayBelieveRomanceLife IsDangerousMoralityBattleEssenceTragedyGreekPreparednessHowards End
Book:Delphi Collected Works of E. M. Forster (Illustrated)
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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.”

IfsHeartLittlesEyeDiesCoursesSecretTakenToo MuchOur LivesMiddleTearsOughtEqualVictimPursueInsaneProportionShoreShut UpEnteringFanaticsGrimFrigidity
Book:Howards End: England Literature
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“The kingdom of music is not the kingdom of this world; it will accept those whom breeding and intellect and culture have alike rejected. The commonplace person begins to play, and shoots into the empyrean without effort, whilst we look up, marvelling how he has escaped us, and thinking how we could worship him and love him, would he but translate his visions into human words, and his experiences into human actions. Perhaps he cannot; certainly he does not, or does so very seldom.”

ThinkingWorldHumansLooksPersonsDoePlayActionCultureEffortAcceptingVisionThis WorldWorshipMusic IsAnd LoveIntellectKingdomsLook UpTranslateRejectedCommonplaceBreedingHuman ActionsRoom 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
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“One minute. You know nothing about him. He probably has his own joys and interests- wife, children, snug little home. That's where we practical fellows'- he smiled-'are more tolerant than you intellectuals. We live and let live, and assume that things are jogging on fairly well elsewhere, and that the ordinary plain man may be trusted to look after his own affairs.”

KnowsMenWellsLooksMayChildrenLittlesHomeJoyInterestWifeMinutesOrdinaryFellowsAssumingAffairPracticalsElsewhereTrustedOne MinuteJoggingLive And Let Live
Book:Howards End
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“Was Mrs. Wilcox one of the unsatisfactory people- there are many of them- who dangle intimacy and then withdraw it? They evoke our interests and affections, and keep the life of the spirit dawdling around them. Then they withdraw. When physical passion is involved, there is a definite name for such behaviour- flirting- and if carried far enough, it is punishable by law. But no law- not public opinion, even- punishes those who coquette with friendship, though the dull ache that they inflict, the sense of misdirected effort and exhaustion, may be as intolerable. Was she one of these?”

PeopleIfsMayEnoughLawSpiritPassionNamesInterestEffortOpinionInvolvedAffectionIntimacyDullBehaviourDefiniteFlirtingAchePublic OpinionEvokeExhaustionHowards EndCoquette
Book:Delphi Collected Works of E. M. Forster (Illustrated)
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“This desire to govern a woman -- it lies very deep, and men and women must fight it together.... But I do love you surely in a better way then he does." He thought. "Yes -- really in a better way. I want you to have your own thoughts even when I hold you in my arms.”

MenWayWantDoeTogetherLyingDesireFightingLove YouArmsMen And WomenI Want YouBetter WaysVery DeepRoom With A View
Book:Literary Love: 5 Wild and Wanton Classics
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“She would only point out the salvation that was latent in his own soul, and in the soul of every man. Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer. Only connect, and the beast and the monk, robbed of the isolation that is life to either, will die.”

MenLoveHumansSoulWholeDiesPassionSalvationEvery ManHeightBeastIsolationProseSermonsFragmentsMonkExaltedLatentHuman LoveHowards End
Author:E. M. Forster
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“I can only do what's easy. I can only entice and be enticed. I can't, and won't, attempt difficult relations. If I marry it will either be a man who's strong enough to boss me or whom I'm strong enough to boss. So I shan't ever marry, for there aren't such men. And Heaven help any one whom I do marry, for I shall certainly run away from him before you can say 'Jack Robinson.”

IfsMenI CanEnoughHelpingRunningStrongHeavenEasyDifficultRelationBossRunning AwayStrong EnoughBe A Man
Book:Delphi Collected Works of E. M. Forster (Illustrated)
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“It was not that ladies were inferior to men; it was that they were different. Their mission was to inspire others to achievement rather than to achieve themselves. Indirectly, by means of tact and a spotless name, a lady could accomplish much. But if she rushed into the fray herself she would be first censured, then despised, and finally ignored.”

IfsMenFirstsMeanDifferentWould BeNamesAchieveInspireAchievementAccomplishMissionsInferiorsIgnoredDespisedTactInspire OthersFrayRoom With A View
Book:Delphi Collected Works of E. M. Forster (Illustrated)
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“Lucy was suffering from the most grievous wrong which this world has yet discovered: diplomatic advantage had been taken of her sincerity, of her craving for sympathy and love. Such a wrong is not easily forgotten. Never again did she expose herself without due consideration and precaution against rebuff. And such a wrong may react disastrously upon the soul.”

WorldLoveMaySoulAgeSufferingTakenThis WorldAdvantageAnd LoveForgottenDuesConsiderationSincerityCravingDiplomaticLucyPrecautionSympathy And LoveRebuffEasily Forgotten
Book:A Room with a View
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