At night, when the curtains are drawn and the fire flickers, my books attain a collective dignity.
E. M. FORSTEROnly a writer who has the sense of evil can make goodness readable.
More E. M. Forster Quotes
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We cast a shadow on something wherever we stand.
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It was pleasant to wake up in Florence, to open the eyes upon a bright bare room, with a floor of red tiles which look clean though they are not; with a painted ceiling whereon pink griffins and blue amorini sport in a forest of yellow violins and bassoons.
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Life never gives us what we want at the moment that we consider appropriate.
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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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… there are shadows because there are hills.
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Science is better than sympathy, if only it is science.
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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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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.
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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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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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My temple stands not upon Mount Moriah but in the Elysian Field where even the immoral are admitted. My motto is ‘Lord, I disbelieve – help thou my unbelief.
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You confuse what’s important with what’s impressive.
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To make us feel small in the right way is a function of art; men can only make us feel small in the wrong way.
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You can transmute love, ignore it, muddle it, but you can never pull it out of you.
E. M. FORSTER -
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