There are moments when the inner life actually ‘pays,’ when years of self-scrutiny, conducted for no ulterior motive, are suddenly of practical use.
E. M. FORSTER… there are shadows because there are hills.
More E. M. Forster Quotes
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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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The kingdom of music is not the kingdom of this world; it will accept those whom breeding and intellect and culture have alike rejected.
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Mistrust all enterprises that require new clothes.
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I have no mystic faith in the people. I have in the individual.
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How can I know what I think till I see what I say?
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One person with passion is better than forty people merely interested.
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But it struck him that people are not really dead until they are felt to be dead. As long as there is some misunderstanding about them, they possess a sort of immortality.
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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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Works of art, in my opinion, are the only objects in the material universe to possess internal order, and that is why, though I don’t believe that only art matters, I do believe in Art for Art’s sake.
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It makes a difference doesn’t it, whether we fully fence ourselves in, or whether we are fenced out by the barriers of others?
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Outside the arch, always there seemed another arch. And beyond the remotest echo, a silence.
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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.
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Adventures do occur, but not punctually.
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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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There’s never any great risk as long as you have money.
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One has two duties – to be worried and not to be worried.
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Though life is very glorious, it is difficult.
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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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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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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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I 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.
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What is wonderful about great literature is that it transforms the man who reads it towards the condition of the man who wrote.
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You told me once that we shall be judged by our intentions, not by our accomplishments. I thought it a grand remark. But we must intend to accomplish – not sit intending on a chair.
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I would rather be a coward than brave because people hurt you when you are brave.
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Let yourself go. Pull out from the depths those thoughts that you do not understand, and spread them out in the sunlight and know the meaning of them.
E. M. FORSTER