E. M. Forster Quotes

One was left, too, with a gap in Christianity: the canonical gospels do not record that Christ laughed or played. Can a man be perfect if he never laughs or plays? Krishna’s jokes may be vapid, but they bridge a gap.

Think before you speak is criticism’s motto; speak before you think creation’s.

I do not believe in Belief… Lord I disbelieve—help thou my unbelief.

The historian must have a third quality as well: some conception of how men who are not historians behave. Otherwise he will move in a world of the dead.

It is frivolous stuff, and how rare, how precious is frivolity! How few writers can prostitute all their powers! They are always implying ‘I am capable of higher things.’

It is not that the Englishman can’t feel—it is that he is afraid to feel.

They go forth into a world…of men who are as various as the sands of the sea; into a world of whose richness and subtlety they have no conception. They go forth into it with well-developed bodies, fairly developed minds, and undeveloped hearts.

Ulysses…is a dogged attempt to cover the universe with mud, an inverted Victorianism, an attempt to make crossness and dirt succeed where sweetness and light failed, a simplification of the human character in the interests of Hell.

Yes—oh dear yes—the novel tells a story.

The echo began in some indescribable way to undermine her hold on life. Coming at a moment when she chanced to be fatigued, it had managed to murmur, ‘Pathos, piety, courage—they exist, but are identical, and so is filth. Everything exists, nothing has value.’

The so-called white races are really pinko-grey.

‘I don’t think I understand people very well. I only know whether I like or dislike them.’ ‘Then you are an Oriental.’

Religion is far more acute than science, and if it only added judgement to insight, would be the greatest thing in the world.

There is much to be said for apathy in education.

Death destroys a man: the idea of death saves him.

Personal relations are the important thing for ever and ever, and not this outer life of telegrams and anger.

The poor cannot always reach those whom they want to love, and they can hardly ever escape from those whom they no longer love.