I have only got down on to paper, really, three types of people: the person I think I am, the people who irritate me, and the people I’d like to be.
E. M. FORSTERTo make us feel small in the right way is a function of art; men can only make us feel small in the wrong way.
More E. M. Forster Quotes
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The armour of falsehood is subtly wrought out of darkness, and hides a man not only from others, but from his own soul.
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The other damned saw what was happening and caught hold of it too. She was indignant and cried, “Let go-it’s my onion,” and as soon as she said, “my onion,” the stalk broke and she fell back into the flames.
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One has two duties – to be worried and not to be worried.
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It isn’t possible to love and to part.
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Sometimes I think too much fuss is made about marriage. Century after century of carnal embracement and we’re still no nearer to understanding one another.
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I would rather be a coward than brave because people hurt you when you are brave.
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Life is sometimes life and sometimes only a drama, and one must learn to distinguish t’other from which . . .
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I believe we shall come to care about people less and less, Helen. The more people one knows, the easier it becomes to replace them. It’s one of the curses of London. I quite expect to end my life caring most for a place.
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Life is a public performance on the violin, in which you must learn the instrument as you go along.
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I have no mystic faith in the people. I have in the individual.
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Though life is very glorious, it is difficult.
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When I think of what life is, and how seldom love is answered by love; it is one of the moments for which the world was made.
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I cannot help thinking that there is something to admire in everyone, even if you do not approve of them.
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Creative writers are always greater than the causes that they represent.
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One grows accustomed to being praised, or being blamed, or being advised, but it is unusual to be understood.
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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.
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Death destroys a man, but the idea of death saves him.
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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 we find happiness so often that we should turn it off the box when it happens to sit there?
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Human relations are impossible. When they are real they are uncomfortable, and when they are comfortable they are unreal. It was for the journey into solitude that the human soul was created.
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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.
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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?
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There’s never any great risk as long as you have money.
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One always tends to overpraise a long book, because one has got through it.
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I think you’re beautiful, the only beautiful person I’ve ever seen. I love your voice and everything to do with you, down to your clothes or the room you are sitting in. I adore you.
E. M. FORSTER