Don’t begin with proportion. Only prigs do that. Let proportion come in as a last resource, when the better things have failed.
E. M. FORSTERIt is easy to sympathize at a distance,’ said an old gentleman with a beard. ‘I value more the kind word that is spoken close to my ear.
More E. M. Forster Quotes
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Nonsense and beauty have close connections.
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My temple stands not upon Mount Moriah but in the Elysian Field where even the immoral are admitted. My motto is ‘Lord, I disbelieve – help thou my unbelief.
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The king died and then the queen died is a story. The king died, and then queen died of grief is a plot.
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A poem is true if it hangs together. Information points to something else. A poem points to nothing but itself.
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I won’t be protected. I will choose for myself what is ladylike and right. To shield me is an insult.
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School was the unhappiest time of my life and the worst trick it ever played on me was to pretend that it was the world in miniature. For it hindered me from discovering how lovely and delightful and kind the world can be, and how much of it is intelligible.
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The four characteristics of humanism are curiosity, a free mind, belief in good taste, and belief in the human race.
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The main facts in human life are five: birth, food, sleep, love and death.
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Do not be proud of your inconsistency. It is a pity, it is a pity that we should be equipped like this. It is a pity that Man cannot be at the same time impressive and truthful.
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I believe in teaching people to be individuals, and to understand other individuals.
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There are moments when the inner life actually ‘pays,’ when years of self-scrutiny, conducted for no ulterior motive, are suddenly of practical use.
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It is easy to sympathize at a distance,’ said an old gentleman with a beard. ‘I value more the kind word that is spoken close to my ear.
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How can I know what I think till I see what I say?
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Think before you speak is criticism’s motto; speak before you think, creation’s.
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She stopped and leant her elbows against the parapet of the embankment. He did likewise. There is at times a magic in identity of position; it is one of the things that have suggested to us eternal comradeship.
E. M. FORSTER