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The Works of E. M. Forster QUOTES

The Works of E. M. Forster QUOTES

1 " One. Margaret’s own faith held firm. She knew the human soul will be merged, if it be merged at all, with the stars and the sea. "

― E.M. Forster , The Works of E. M. Forster

2 " The present flowed by them like a stream. The tree rustled. It had made music before they were born, and would continue after their deaths, but its song was of the moment. The moment had passed. The tree rustled again. Their senses were sharpened, and they seemed to apprehend life. Life passed. The tree rustled again. "

― E.M. Forster , The Works of E. M. Forster

3 " it was English, and the wych-elm that she saw from the window was an English tree. No report had prepared her for its peculiar glory. It was neither warrior, nor lover, nor god; in none of these roles do the English excel. It was a comrade bending over the house, strength and adventure in its roots, but in its utmost fingers tenderness, and the girth, that a dozen men could not have spanned, became in the end evanescent, till pale bud clusters seemed to float in the air. It was a comrade. "

― E.M. Forster , The Works of E. M. Forster

4 " My conviction,” says the mystic, “gains infinitely the moment another soul will believe in it,” and they had agreed that there was something beyond life’s daily grey. "

― E.M. Forster , The Works of E. M. Forster

5 " The feudal ownership of land did bring dignity, whereas the modern ownership of movables is reducing us again to a nomadic horde. We are reverting to the civilisation of luggage, and historians of the future will note how the middle classes accreted possessions without taking root in the earth, and may find in this the secret of their imaginative poverty. "

― E.M. Forster , The Works of E. M. Forster

6 " As is Man to the Universe, so was the mind of Mr. Wilcox to the minds of some men — a concentrated light upon a tiny spot, a little Ten Minutes moving self-contained through its appointed years. No Pagan he, who lives for the Now, and may be wiser than all philosophers. He lived for the five minutes that have past, and the five to come; he had the business mind. "

― E.M. Forster , The Works of E. M. Forster

7 " Her idea of business— “Henry, why do people who have enough money try to get more money?” Her idea of politics— “I am sure that if the mothers of various nations could meet, there would be no more wars, "

― E.M. Forster , The Works of E. M. Forster

8 " To the insular cynic and the insular moralist they offer an equal opportunity. It is so easy to talk of “passing emotion,” and to forget how vivid the emotion was ere it passed. Our impulse to sneer, to forget, is at root a good one. We recognise that emotion is not enough, and that men and women are personalities capable of sustained relations, not mere opportunities for an electrical discharge. Yet we rate the impulse too highly. We do not admit that by collisions of this trivial sort the doors of heaven may be shaken open. "

― E.M. Forster , The Works of E. M. Forster

9 " Margaret had often wondered at the disturbance that takes place in the world’s waters, when Love, who seems so tiny a pebble, slips in. Whom does Love concern beyond the beloved and the lover? Yet his impact deluges a hundred shores. No doubt the disturbance is really the spirit of the generations, welcoming the new generation, and chafing against the ultimate Fate, who holds all the seas in the palm of her hand. But Love cannot understand this. He cannot comprehend another’s infinity; he is conscious only of his own — flying sunbeam, falling rose, pebble that asks for one quiet plunge below the fretting interplay of space and time. "

― E.M. Forster , The Works of E. M. Forster

10 " He misliked the very word “interesting,” connoting it with wasted energy and even with morbidity. Hard facts were enough for him. "

― E.M. Forster , The Works of E. M. Forster

11 " This famous building had arisen, that was doomed. To-day Whitehall had been transformed; it would be the turn of Regent Street to-morrow. And month by month the roads smelt more strongly of petrol, and were more difficult to cross, and human beings heard each other speak with greater difficulty, breathed less of the air, and saw less of the sky. Nature withdrew; the leaves were falling by midsummer; the sun shone through dirt with an admired obscurity. "

― E.M. Forster , The Works of E. M. Forster

12 " Now, what is the good of driblets? To go through life having done one thing — to have raised one person from the abyss; not these puny gifts of shillings and blankets — making the grey more grey. No doubt people will think me extraordinary. "

― E.M. Forster , The Works of E. M. Forster

13 " At once he was horrified too; saw that the idea was monstrous; abused "

― E.M. Forster , The Works of E. M. Forster

14 " One admits that the arguments against the suffrage ARE extraordinarily strong,” said a girl opposite, leaning forward and crumbling her bread. “Are they? I never follow any arguments. I am only too thankful not to have a vote myself.” “We didn’t mean the vote, though, did we?” supplied Margaret. “Aren’t we differing on something much wider, Mrs. Wilcox? Whether women are to remain what they have been since the dawn of history; or whether, since men have moved forward so far, they too may move forward a little now. I say they may. I would even admit a biological change. "

― E.M. Forster , The Works of E. M. Forster

15 " London was but a foretaste of this nomadic civilisation which is altering human nature so profoundly, and throws upon personal relations a stress greater than they have ever borne before. Under cosmopolitanism, if it comes, we shall receive no help from the earth. Trees and meadows and mountains will only be a spectacle, and the binding force that they once exercised on character must be entrusted to Love alone. May Love be equal to the task! "

― E.M. Forster , The Works of E. M. Forster

16 " she had outgrown stimulants, and was passing from words to things. "

― E.M. Forster , The Works of E. M. Forster

17 " She always treated him as a boy, which he was, and as a fool, which he was not, thinking herself so immeasurably superior to him that she neglected opportunity after opportunity of establishing her rule. He was good-looking and indolent; therefore he must be stupid. He was poor; therefore he would never dare to criticize his benefactress. He was passionately in love with her; therefore she could do exactly as she liked. "

― E.M. Forster , The Works of E. M. Forster

18 " Poor Mrs. Charles sat between her silent companions terrified at the course of events, and a little bored. She was a rubbishy little creature, and she knew it. A telegram had dragged her from Naples to the death-bed of a woman whom she had scarcely known. A word from her husband had plunged her into mourning. She desired to mourn inwardly as well, but she wished that Mrs. Wilcox, since fated to die, could have died before the marriage, for then less would have been expected of her. "

― E.M. Forster , The Works of E. M. Forster

19 " No, Mother; no. She was really keen on Italy. This travel is quite a crisis for her.” He found the situation full of whimsical romance: there was something half attractive, half repellent in the thought of this vulgar woman journeying to places he loved and revered. Why should she not be transfigured? The same had happened to the Goths. "

― E.M. Forster , The Works of E. M. Forster

20 " I don’t intend him, or any man or any woman, to be all my life — good heavens, no! There are heaps of things in me that he doesn’t, and shall never, understand. "

― E.M. Forster , The Works of E. M. Forster