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E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quotes

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Famous E. M. Forster Quotes

“[...] 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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“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
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“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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“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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“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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“He built up a situation that was far enough from the truth. It never occurred to him that Helen was to blame. He forgot the intensity of their talk, the charm that had been lent him by sincerity, the magic of Oniton under darkness and of the whispering river. Helen loved the absolute. Leonard had been ruined absolutely, and had appeared to her as a man apart, isolated from the world. A real man, who cared for adventure and beauty, who desired to live decently and pay his way, who could have travelled more gloriously through life than the Juggernaut car that was crushing him.”

MenWorldWayRealEnoughPaySituationDarknessMagicCarAdventureBuiltRiversAbsolutesBlameCrushCharmIntensitySincerityIsolatedRuinedWhisperingReal MenHelenJuggernaut
Book:Howards End: England Literature
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“The test of a round character is whether it is capable of surprising in a convincing way. If it never surprises it is flat. Flat characters ... in their purest form ... are constructed round a single idea or quality; when there is more than one factor to them, we get the beginning of the curve toward the round. The really flat character can be experessed in one sentence such as, "I will never desert Mr Micawber." There is Mrs Micawber - she says she won't desert Mr Micawber; she doesn't, and there she is.”

IfsWayIdeasCharacterFormQualityCapableTestsSurpriseRoundsSentencesFactorsCraftsDesertFlatsSurprisingCurvesConvincingOne SentenceMicawber
Author:E. M. Forster
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“If human nature does alter it will be because individuals manage to look at themselves in a new way. Here and there people - a very few people, but a few novelists are among them - are trying to do this. Every institution and vested interest in against such a search: organized religion, the state, the family in its economic aspect, have nothing to gain, and it is only when outward prohibitions weaken that it can proceed: history conditions it to that extent.”

PeopleIfsWayTryingHumansLooksDoeStatesIndividualInterestAtheismEconomicConditionsHuman NatureGainsAspectInstitutionsPositive AtheismManageNovelistsOrganizedNew WaysHere And ThereProhibitionOrganized ReligionVested Interests
Author:E. M. Forster
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“In the light of her son's comment she reconsidered the scene at the mosque, to see whose impression was correct. Yes it could be worked into quite an unpleasant scene. The doctor had begun by bullying her, had said Mrs Callendar was nice, and then - finding the ground safe - had changed; he had alternately whined over his grievances and patronized her, had run a dozen ways in a single sentence, had been unreliable, inquisitive, vain. Yes, it was all true, but how false as a summary of the man; the essential life of him had been slain.”

MenWaySaidLightRunningNiceChangedHe ManSonSceneSafeEssentialsFindingsDoctorsSentencesImpressionVainBullyingCommentDozenGrievanceMosquesUnreliableSummaryInquisitiveSingle Sentence
Author:E. M. Forster
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