The final test for a novel will be our affection for it, as it is the test of our friends, and of anything else which we cannot define.
E. M. FORSTERThe final test for a novel will be our affection for it, as it is the test of our friends, and of anything else which we cannot define.
E. M. FORSTERMy conviction gains infinitely the moment another soul will believe in it.
E. M. FORSTERAdventures do occur, but not punctually.
E. M. FORSTERThe sort of poetry I seek only resides in objects Man can’t touch – like England ‘s grass network of lanes 100 years ago, but today he can destroy them and only Lord Farrer keeps him from doing it.
E. M. FORSTERThe only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little farther down our particular path than we have yet got ourselves.
E. M. FORSTERInside its cocoon of work or social obligation, the human spirit slumbers for the most part, registering the distinction between pleasure and pain, but not nearly as alert as we pretend.
E. M. FORSTERI believe in teaching people to be individuals, and to understand other individuals.
E. M. FORSTERYou confuse what’s important with what’s impressive.
E. M. FORSTER… there are shadows because there are hills.
E. M. FORSTERLife never gives us what we want at the moment that we consider appropriate.
E. M. FORSTERSometimes 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.
E. M. FORSTERGive, do not lend; after death who will thank you?
E. M. FORSTEROne has two duties – to be worried and not to be worried.
E. M. FORSTERIt isn’t possible to love and part. You will wish that it was. You can transmute love, ignore it, muddle it, but you can never pull it out of you. I know by experience that the poets are right: love is eternal.
E. M. FORSTEROne person with passion is better than forty people merely interested.
E. M. FORSTERScience is better than sympathy, if only it is science.
E. M. FORSTER