E. M. Forster Quotes 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. ― E. M. Forster What is the good of your stars and trees, your sunrise and the wind, if they do not enter into our daily lives? ― E. M. Forster We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. ― E. M. Forster We are willing enough to praise freedom when she is safely tucked away in the past and cannot be a nuisance. In the present, amidst dangers whose outcome we cannot foresee, we get nervous about her, and admit censorship. ― E. M. Forster Tolerance is a very dull virtue. It is boring. Unlike love, it has always had a bad press. It is negative. It merely means putting up with people, being able to stand things. ― E. M. Forster 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. ― E. M. Forster The work of art assumes the existence of the perfect spectator, and is indifferent to the fact that no such person exists. ― E. M. Forster The sort of poetry I seek resides in objects man can't touch. ― E. M. Forster The sadness of the incomplete, the sadness that is often Life, but should never be Art. ― E. M. Forster The people I respect most behave as if they were immortal and as if society was eternal. ― E. M. Forster The main facts in human life are five: birth, food, sleep, love and death. ― E. M. Forster The historian must have some conception of how men who are not historians behave. Otherwise he will move in a world of the dead. He can only gain that conception through personal experience, and he can only use his personal experiences when he is a genius. ― E. M. Forster The four characteristics of humanism are curiosity, a free mind, belief in good taste, and belief in the human race. ― E. M. Forster 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. ― E. M. Forster Only people who have been allowed to practise freedom can have the grown-up look in their eyes. ― E. M. Forster One of the evils of money is that it tempts us to look at it rather than at the things that it buys. ― E. M. Forster One must be fond of people and trust them if one is not to make a mess of life. ― E. M. Forster Nonsense and beauty have close connections. ― E. M. Forster Love is always being given where it is not required. ― E. M. Forster 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 I have no mystic faith in the people. I have in the individual. ― E. M. Forster I hate the idea of causes, and 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 I am sure that if the mothers of various nations could meet, there would be no more wars. ― E. M. Forster I am so used to seeing the sort of play which deals with one man and two women. They do not leave me with the feeling I have made a full theatrical meal they do not give me the experience of the multiplicity of life. ― E. M. Forster History develops, art stands still. ― E. M. Forster Faith, to my mind, is a stiffening process, a sort of mental starch. ― E. M. Forster England has always been disinclined to accept human nature. ― E. M. Forster Either life entails courage, or it ceases to be life. ― E. M. Forster Death destroys a man, but the idea of death saves him. ― E. M. Forster Charm, in most men and nearly all women, is a decoration. ― E. M. Forster ‹ Previous 1 2 Next Page ›
