The only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little farther down our particular path than we have yet got ourselves.
E. M. FORSTERYou confuse what’s important with what’s impressive.
More E. M. Forster Quotes
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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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We cast a shadow on something wherever we stand.
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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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People have their own deaths as well as their own lives, and even if there is nothing beyond death, we shall differ in our nothingness.
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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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Spoon feeding in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon.
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Adventures do occur, but not punctually.
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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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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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I believe in teaching people to be individuals, and to understand other individuals.
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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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It isn’t possible to love and to part.
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I believe we shall come to care about people less and less, Helen. The more people one knows, the easier it becomes to replace them. It’s one of the curses of London. I quite expect to end my life caring most for a place.
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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.
E. M. FORSTER






