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E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quotes

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Famous E. M. Forster Quotes

“For a wonderful physical tie binds the parents to the children; and - by some sad, strange irony - it does not bind us children to our parents. For if it did, if we could answer their love not with gratitude but with equal love, life would lose much of its pathos and much of its squalor, and we might be wonderfully happy.”

IfsChildrenDoeMightParentLosesAnswersWonderfulStrangeGratitudeEqualIronyTiesLove LifePathosSqualorEqual Love
Book:Where Angels Fear to Tread
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“He stretched out his hands as he sang, sadly, because all beauty is sad…The poem had done no ‘good’ to anyone, but it was a passing reminder, a breath from the divine lips of beauty, a nightingale between two worlds of dust. Less explicit than the call to Krishna, it voiced our loneliness nevertheless, our isolation, our need for the Friend who never comes yet is not entirely disproved.”

WorldNeedsTwoDoneHandsLonelinessDivineBreathsLipsPassingPassingsDustIsolationNeverthelessRemindersKrishnaExplicitTwo WorldsNightingales
Author:E. M. Forster
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“Life's very difficult and full of surprises. At all events, I've got as far as that. To be humble and kind, to go straight ahead, to love people rather than pity them, to remember the submerged - well, one can't do all these things at once, worse luck, because they're so contradictory. It's then that proportion comes in - to live by proportion. Don't begin with proportion. Only prigs do that. Let proportion come in as a last resource, when the better things have failed.”

PeopleWellsKindLastsRememberDifficultEventsResourcesLuckSurpriseHumblePityProportionLive ByContradictoryBe HumbleSubmergedHowards End
Book:Delphi Collected Works of E. M. Forster (Illustrated)
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“What is the good of your stars and trees, your sunrise and the wind, if they do not enter into our daily lives? They have never entered into mine, but into yours, we thought--Haven't we all to struggle against life's daily greyness, against pettiness, against mechanical cheerfulness, against suspicion? I struggle by remembering my friends; others I have known by remembering some place--some beloved place or tree--we thought you one of these.”

IfsRememberStarsKnownStruggleTreeHavensMinesWindMy FriendsBelovedDaily LifeSuspicionSunriseCheerfulnessPettinessHowards End
Book:Howard's End
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“We cast a shadow on something wherever we stand, and it is no good moving from place to place to save things; because the shadow always follows. Choose a place where you won't do harm - yes, choose a place where you won't do very much harm, and stand in it for all you are worth, facing the sunshine.”

MovingDarknessShadowCastsHarmSunshineDarkness To LightRoom With A View
Book:Delphi Collected Works of E. M. Forster (Illustrated)
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“George had turned at the sound of her arrival. For a moment he contemplated her, as one who had fallen out of heaven. He saw radiant joy in her face, he saw the flowers beat against her dress in blue waves. The bushes above them closed. He stepped quickly forward and kissed her. Before she could speak, almost before she could feel, a voice called 'Lucy! Lucy! Lucy!' The silence of life had been broken by Miss Bartlett, who stood brown against the view.”

FeelsMomentsFacesJoySpeakHeavenSoundVoiceViewsSilenceSawsMissingFlowerBrokenBeatsDressesBlueWaveFallenBrownArrivalsRadiantLucyRoom With A View
Book:A Room With A View: England Literature
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“Why can't we be friends now?" said the other, holding him affectionately. "It's what I want. It's what you want." But the horses didn't want it — they swerved apart: the earth didn't want it, sending up rocks through which riders must pass single file; the temple, the tank, the jail, the palace, the birds, the carrion, the Guest House, that came into view as they emerged from the gap and saw Mau beneath: they didn't want it, they said in their hundred voices "No, not yet," and the sky said "No, not there.”

WantSaidEarthHouseVoiceViewsSawsSkyRocksBirdHundredHorseWhat You WantTemplesGapsJailGuestsThey SaidPalacesFilesTanksRidersCarrion
Book:A Passage to India
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“When we were only acquaintances, you let me be myself, but now you're always protecting me... I won't be protected. I will choose for myself what is ladylike and right. To shield me is an insult. Can't I be trusted to face the truth but I must get it second-hand through you? A woman's place!”

HandsFacesLet MeInsultProtectedTrustedAcquaintanceShieldsSecond HandFacing The TruthLadylike
Book:A Room With A View: England Literature
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