Faith, to my mind, is a stiffening process, a sort of mental starch, which ought to be applied as sparingly as possible. I dislike the stuff. I do not believe in it, for its own sake, at all… My lawgivers are Erasmus and Montaigne, not Moses and St Paul.
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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We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
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If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.
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There are periods in the most thrilling day during which nothing happens, and though we continue to exclaim, “I do enjoy myself”, or , “I am horrified,” we are insincere.
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If we act the truth the people who really love us are sure to come back to us in the long run
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Think before you speak is criticism’s motto; speak before you think, creation’s.
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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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You confuse what’s important with what’s impressive.
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Mistrust all enterprises that require new clothes.
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One of the evils of money is that it tempts us to look at it rather than at the things that it buys.
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The 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.
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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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One has two duties – to be worried and not to be worried.
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The historian records, but the novelist creates.
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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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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. FORSTER