A poem is true if it hangs together. Information points to something else. A poem points to nothing but itself.
E. M. FORSTERI can only do what’s easy. I can only entice and be enticed. I can’t, and won’t, attempt difficult relations. If I marry it will either be a man who’s strong enough to boss me or whom I’m strong enough to boss.
More E. M. Forster Quotes
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Nonsense and beauty have close connections.
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Think before you speak is criticism’s motto; speak before you think, creation’s.
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For it is a serious thing to have been watched. We all radiate something curiously intimate when we believe ourselves to be alone.
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The historian records, but the novelist creates.
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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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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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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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The four characteristics of humanism are curiosity, a free mind, belief in good taste, and belief in the human race.
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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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Only a writer who has the sense of evil can make goodness readable.
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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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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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How can I know what I think till I see what I say?
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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.
E. M. FORSTER -
One grows accustomed to being praised, or being blamed, or being advised, but it is unusual to be understood.
E. M. FORSTER