Books have to be read it is the only way of discovering what they contain.
E. M. FORSTERMy conviction gains infinitely the moment another soul will believe in it.
More E. M. Forster Quotes
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Unless we remember we cannot understand.
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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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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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One must be fond of people and trust them if one is not to make a mess of life.
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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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It’s not what people do to you, but what they mean, that hurts.
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Though life is very glorious, it is difficult.
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Creative writers are always greater than the causes that they represent.
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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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I believe in teaching people to be individuals, and to understand other individuals.
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When you come back you will not be you. And I may not be I.
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Give, do not lend; after death who will thank you?
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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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Don’t be mysterious; there isn’t the time.
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Most of life is so dull that there is nothing to be said about it, and the books and talks that would describe it as interesting are obliged to exaggerate, in the hope of justifying their own existence.
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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 am sure that if the mothers of various nations could meet, there would be no more wars.
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It is so difficult – at least, I find it difficult – to understand people who speak the truth.
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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.
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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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One grows accustomed to being praised, or being blamed, or being advised, but it is unusual to be understood.
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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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I distrust Great Men. They produce a desert of uniformity around them and often a pool of blood too, and I always feel a little man’s pleasure when they come a cropper.
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Mistrust all enterprises that require new clothes.
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Don’t begin with proportion. Only prigs do that. Let proportion come in as a last resource, when the better things have failed.
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Life never gives us what we want at the moment that we consider appropriate.
E. M. FORSTER