It is not difficult to stand above the conventions when we leave no hostages among them; men can always be more unconventional than women, and a bachelor of independent means need encounter no difficulties at all.
E.M. Forster
Related The King once said to me, 'Harold, you stand above all other men.' I said, 'No, Sire. I want nothing... ELIZABETH ALDER Once women begin to question the inevitability of their subordination and to reject the conventions ... CHRISTOPHER LASCH Idleness among children, as among men, is the root of all evil, and leads to no other evil more cert... HANNAH MORE A society can be no better than the men and women who compose it. ADLAI E. STEVENSON It is not ease but effort, not facility but difficult, that makes man. There is perhaps no station i... SAMUEL SMILES Love at first sight is no more than lust at first sight, it is no more a real thing than an abstract... ASTRAEA L. SKYLAR A pandemic is unique among disasters. It could happen in 5,000 different communities around the worl... MIKE LEAVITT As E.M. Forster so brilliantly put it, 'It is difficult, after accepting six cups of tea, to throw t... CAROLYN HEILBRUN Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formida... RONALD REAGAN Women tend to need the healthcare system more because we bear children. Insurance companies - not al... GLORIA STEINEM Biological possibility and desire are not the same as biological need. Women have childbearing equip... BETTY ROLLIN No point is of more importance than the right of impeachment should be continued. Shall any man be a... GEORGE MASON I hope that no more groans of wounded men and women will ever go to the ear of the Great Spirit Chie... CHIEF JOSEPH Decisiveness is a characteristic of high-performing men and women. Almost any decision is better tha... BRIAN TRACY At a time when our moral standing in the world has been weakened by a rubber stamp Justice Departmen... DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formida... RONALD REAGAN It is the work of unjust men, we think, to carry off women at all; but once they have been carried o... HERODOTUS When true happiness shows up, the ego is bored with it: It's too plain, too ordinary, and it doesn't... GINA LAKE Once women begin to question the inevitability of their subordination and to reject the conventions ... CHRISTOPHER LASCH Men are no more immune from emotions than women; we think women are more emotional because the cultu... UNA STANNARD Our mission... it will be difficult, it will take time, it will be demanding for all men and women..... EMMANUEL MACRON When you encounter difficulties and contradictions, do not try to break them, but bend them with gen... SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court c... LEARNED HAND Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court c... LEARNED HAND The trend of opinion among eugenists is that we must make marriage more difficult. Certainly no one ... NIKOLA TESLA For me, men and women are different. A man is genetically gifted to pull more than a woman. But at t... KAJOL Equality is like gravity. We need it to stand on this earth as men and women. JOSS WHEDON Stand true to your calling to be a man. Real women will always be relieved and grateful when men are... ELISABETH ELLIOT Most men claim to desire driven, independent and confident women. Yet when confronted with such a cr... TIFFANY MADISON We women are always in danger of living too exclusively in the affections; and though our affections... GEORGE ELIOT In a few generations more, there will probably be no room at all allowed for animals on the earth: n... MARIE LOUISE It is difficult beyond description to conceive that space can have no end; but it is more difficult ... THOMAS PAINE The need to be right all the time is the biggest bar to new ideas. It is better to have enough ideas... EDWARD DE BONO Equal and united people can above all become a part of the civilization toward which mankind is movi... SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC Not all men (and especially the wisest) share the opinion that it is bad for women to be educated. B... CHRISTINE DE PIZAN E. M. Forster never gets any further than warming the teapot. He's a rare fine hand at that. Feel th... KATHERINE MANSFIELD Probably all laws are useless; for good men do not need laws at all, and bad men are made no better ... DEMONAX THE CYNIC Sport inevitably creates deadness of feeling. No one could take pleasure in it who was sensitive to ... OUIDA It has always been fairly safe to talk about God; it is when we start to talk about men that the tro... WILLIAM BARCLAY Intimacy between humans need not be relegated to independent film. Real characters can exist no matt... COLIN TREVORROW There is no more difficult art to acquire than the art of observation, and for some men it is quite ... WILLIAM OSLER All your words are but to say: you are a woman, and your part is in the house. But when the men have... J. R. R. TOLKIEN All your words are but to say: you are a woman, and your part is in the house. But when the men have... J.R.R. TOLKIEN There's a strong perception in New Orleans that we don't leave. But it troubles me when I see report... JEANNE HURLBERT We need real leadership, Democrat, Republican and independent to stand up and say, we have to live w... TOM COBURN To be a follower of the Crucified means, sooner or later, a personal encounter with the cross. And t... ELISABETH ELLIOT To be a follower of the Crucified means, sooner or later, a personal encounter with the cross. And t... ELISABETH ELLIOT We must always tell what we see. Above all, and this is more difficult, we must always see what we s... CHARLES PEGUY We must always tell what we see. Above all, and this is more difficult, we must always see what we ... CHARLES PEGUY Let us leave pretty women to men with no imagination. MARCEL PROUST Life can be very difficult at times. However, death is always a no brain er. NOLAN J. VANDER HAAGEN Therefore keep in the midst of life. Do not isolate yourself. Be among men and things, and among tro... HENRY DRUMMOND We can take this country back. All we need is to nominate the right candidate. It's no more comp... RUSH LIMBAUGH I can only remember two books from college that moved me: E.M. Forster's 'Howards End' a... ETHAN CANIN We don't need no more danger, we don't need no more difficulties, we don't need no more ... BURNING SPEAR This is a large, fast-moving fire that already has caused at least $1 million in damage, ... More th... GARY LOCKE It's always difficult finding new people, so we train them from people that have no idea how to turn... JEFF WHITEMAN Most women are all too familiar with men like Calvin Smith. Men whose sense of prerogative renders t... JON KRAKAUER To lie is always a necessity for women; above all when they choose to deceive, falsehood becomes vit... MARQUIS DE SADE The real thing that keeps men and women apart, is fear. Women blame men and men blame women, but the... C. JOYBELL C. A man's ego is the world biggest enemy. It destroys everything. A man's ego is the cause of all wars... ROSA M. BETANCES Above all else, be daring, be bold, be unconventional, KEVIN RAMPE 35. God is entitled to a portion of our income—not because He needs it but because we need to give... JAMES C. DOBSON Glamour is something no woman can be born with. It's not a gift at all. It's more of a concoction th... LORETTA YOUNG The preservation of the means of knowledge among the lowest ranks is of more importance to the publi... JOHN ADAMS Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court c... JUSTICE LEARNED HAND There is no development strategy more beneficial to society as a whole - women and men alike - than ... KOFI ANNAN E.M. Ashford: And death shall be no more" comma "death, thou shalt die." Nothing but a breath, a com... MARGARET EBSON There is no thing known as bad luck. There is luck, or no luck at all. JEFFREY FRY Be your own person, don't follow the crowd, and above all, stand out. BEN OAK Life does not stand still for families and local communities when our brave men and women are deploy... MARK PRYOR There is no means of proving it is preferable to be than not to be. E. M. CIORAN There is no means of proving it is preferable to be than not to be. EMILE M. CIORAN Just trying to get a film made which is always difficult no matter what kind of a budget you have. N... ERIQ LA SALLE When thousands of men and women work full time but need food stamps to put food on their tables, whe... CHARLES B. RANGEL If women want to be treated equally, then they can't ask for sops and whine about not being trea... PREITY ZINTA Women of the working class, especially wage workers, should not have more than two children at most.... MARGARET SANGER If errors must be tolerated, say some, then men may do what they please, without control. No means, ... JOHN OWEN No more turning away from the weak and the weary. No more turning away from the coldness inside. Jus... DAVID GILMORE Men need marriage more than women do. In fact, they need it to survive. HANNA ROSIN We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. ... HENRY DAVID THOREAU I hear of a convention to be held at Baltimore, or elsewhere, for the selection of a candidate for t... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Men's need to dominate women may be based in their own sense of marginality or emptiness; we do not ... MARILYN FRENCH Survival, with honor, that outmoded and all-important word, is as difficult as ever and as all-impor... ERNEST HEMINGWAY Without free, self-respecting, and autonomous citizens there can be no free and independent nations.... VACLAV HAVEL When you leave the gospel behind, and there is no longer any power in your supposed gospel message, ... PAUL WASHER A bunch of liberals wanted to outlaw men gazing at women because the gaze was said to objectify wome... RUSH LIMBAUGH As to what happened next, it is possible to maintain that the hand of heaven was involved, and also ... XENOPHON Money is a commodity that gets us through our lives why we become so corrupt and greedy over it i do... GARY F EVANS... There is no sound more annoying than the chatter of a child, and none more sad than the silence they... MARK LAWRENCE Some of these stories, it is understood, are not to be passed on to my father, because they would up... MARGARET ATWOOD Finally, let us understand that when we stand together, we will always win. When men and women stand... BERNIE SANDERS It's no more difficult than wheeling your trash cart to the curb. We all do it. That's a very easy t... JO SANDERS I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws and upon cour... JUDGE LEARNED HAND I'm supposed to have a Ph.D. on the subject of women. But the truth is I've flunked more often than ... FRANK SINATRA Love is not valuable more than friendship. No sir. Love is always in need of taking. Friendship inde... WOHI PURANA It is the Law that any difficulties that can come to you at any time, no matter what they are, must ... EMMET FOX 37. It is better to be single and unhappy than unhappily married. JAMES C. DOBSON Loving an old bachelor is always a no-win situation JEAN HARRIS There is no more difficult art to acquire than the art of observation, and for some men it is quite ... WILLIAM OSLER
More E.M. Forster
Few travelled in these days, for, thanks to the advance of science, the earth was exactly alike all ... E.M. FORSTER And Englishmen like posing as gods. E.M. FORSTER We cast a shadow on something wherever we stand, and it is no good moving from place to place to sav... E.M. FORSTER Spoon feeding in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon. E.M. FORSTER It isn't possible to love and part. You will wish that it was. You can transmute love, ignore it, mu... E.M. FORSTER Only connect! E.M. FORSTER How can I tell what I think till I see what I say? E.M. FORSTER The armour of falsehood is subtly wrought out of darkness, and hides a man not only from others, but... E.M. FORSTER Then she lay on her back and gazed at the cloudless sky. Mr. Beebe, whose opinion of her rose daily,... E.M. FORSTER In daily life we never understand each other, neither complete clairvoyance nor complete confessiona... E.M. FORSTER It is so difficult - at least, I find it difficult - to understand people who speak the truth. E.M. FORSTER Long books, when read, are usually overpraised, because the reader wishes to convince others and him... E.M. FORSTER How do I know what I think until I see what I say? E.M. FORSTER The Arts are not drugs. They are not guaranteed to act when taken. Something as mysterious and capri... E.M. FORSTER She thought not so much of what had happened as of how she could describe it. 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... E.M. FORSTER Words deserted him immediately. He could only speak when he was not asked to. E.M. FORSTER While the Gods are powerful, we learn little about them. It is only in their day of decadence that a... E.M. FORSTER Nothing ever happens to me, " she reflected..... An older person at such an hour and in such a place... E.M. FORSTER Works of art, in my opinion, are the only objects in the material universe to possess internal order... E.M. FORSTER Lucy's Sabbath was generally of this amphibious nature. She kept it without hypocrisy in the morning... E.M. FORSTER They sowed the duller vegetables first, and a pleasant feeling of righteous fatigue stole over them ... E.M. FORSTER I believe in aristocracy, though -- if that is the right word, and if a democrat may use it. Not an ... E.M. FORSTER You do care a little for me, I know... but nothing to speak of, and you don't love me. I was yours o... E.M. FORSTER My father says that there is only one perfect view — the view of the sky straight over our heads, ... E.M. FORSTER They had nothing in common but the English language. E.M. FORSTER She grew more and more vexed with his dignified behavior. By a cruel irony, she was drawing out what... E.M. FORSTER There lies at the back of every creed something terrible and hard for which the worshiper may one da... E.M. FORSTER To make us feel small in the right way is a function of art. E.M. FORSTER If human nature does alter it will be because individuals manage to look at themselves in a new way.... E.M. FORSTER When I think of what life is, and how seldom love is answered by love; it is one of the moments for ... E.M. FORSTER Was Mrs. Wilcox one of the unsatisfactory people- there are many of them- who dangle intimacy and th... E.M. FORSTER Why children?' he asked. 'Why always children? For love to end where it begins is far more beautiful... E.M. FORSTER I taught him, 'he quavered, "to trust in love. I said:'when love comes, that is reality.' I said: 'P... E.M. FORSTER The main facts in human life are five: birth, food, sleep, love and death. E.M. FORSTER I have almost completed a long novel, but it is unpublishable until my death and England's. E.M. FORSTER After all, is not a real Hell better than a manufactured Heaven? E.M. FORSTER Eccolo!” he exclaimed. At the same moment the ground gave way, and with a cry she fell ... E.M. FORSTER If you pass life by it's jolly well going to pass you by in the future. If you're frightened it's al... E.M. FORSTER It's not what people do to you, but what they mean, that hurts. E.M. FORSTER It all turns on affection now," said Margaret. "Affection. Don't you see?... And affection, when rec... E.M. FORSTER We are not concerned with the very poor. They are unthinkable, and only to be approached by the stat... E.M. FORSTER ... there are shadows because there are hills. E.M. FORSTER I only know what it is that's wrong with him; not why it is." And what is it?" asked Lucy fearf... E.M. FORSTER I have no profession. It is another example of my decadence. My attitude - quite an indefensible one... E.M. FORSTER They wept for humanity, those two, not for themselves. They could not bear that this should be the e... E.M. FORSTER Did you ever dream you had a friend, Alec? Someone to last your whole life and you his. I suppose su... E.M. FORSTER When we were only acquaintances, you let me be myself, but now you're always protecting me... I won'... E.M. FORSTER Vashti was seized with the terrors of direct experience. She shrank back into the room, and the wall... E.M. FORSTER You talk as if a god had made the Machine," cried the other. "I believe that you pray to it when you... E.M. FORSTER Nature pulls one way and human nature another. E.M. FORSTER Most of us are pseudo-scholars...for we are a very large and quite a powerful class, eminent in Chur... E.M. FORSTER Mr. Herriton, don’t – please, Mr. Herriton – a dentist. His father’s a dentist.” Phi... E.M. FORSTER …But so few of us think clearly about our own private incomes, and admit that independent thoughts... E.M. FORSTER Most of the inhabitants of India do not mind how India is governed. Nor are the lower animals of Eng... E.M. FORSTER Adventures do occur, but not punctually. E.M. FORSTER The issues Miss Quested had raised were so much more important than she was herself that people inev... E.M. FORSTER The house was very quiet, and the fog ... pressed against the windows like an excluded ghost. E.M. FORSTER Don't go fighting against the Spring. E.M. FORSTER It was pleasant to wake up in Florence, to open the eyes upon a bright bare room, with a floor of re... E.M. FORSTER Of course he despised the world as a whole; every thoughtful man should; it is almost a test of refi... E.M. FORSTER It was not that ladies were inferior to men; it was that they were different. Their mission was to i... E.M. FORSTER One doesn't come to Italy for niceness," was the retort; "one comes for life. Buon giorno! Buon gior... E.M. FORSTER There is much that is immortal in this medieval lady. The dragons have gone, and so have the knights... E.M. FORSTER ...though nothing is damaged, everything is changed. E.M. FORSTER No, he is not tactful, yet have you ever noticed that there are people who do things which are most ... E.M. FORSTER At times our need for a sympathetic gesture is so great that we care not what exactly it signifies o... E.M. FORSTER The kingdom of music is not the kingdom of this world; it will accept those whom breeding and intell... E.M. FORSTER Do we find happiness so often that we should turn it off the box when it happens to sit there? E.M. FORSTER She only felt that the candle would burn better, the packing go easier, the world be happier, if she... E.M. FORSTER Take an old man's word; there's nothing worse than a muddle in all the world. It is easy to face Dea... E.M. FORSTER Passion should believe itself irresistible. It should forget civility and consideration and all the ... E.M. FORSTER She stopped and leant her elbows against the parapet of the embankment. He did likewise. There is at... E.M. FORSTER By the side of the everlasting Why there is a Yes--a transitory Yes if you like, but a Yes. E.M. FORSTER Life' wrote a friend of mine, 'is a public performance on the violin, in which you must learn the in... E.M. FORSTER It is fate that I am here,' George persisted, 'but you can call it Italy if it makes you less unhapp... E.M. FORSTER Mistrust all enterprises that require new clothes. E.M. FORSTER Let yourself go. Pull out from the depths those thoughts that you do not understand, and spread them... E.M. FORSTER This desire to govern a woman -- it lies very deep, and men and women must fight it together.... But... E.M. FORSTER Life is easy to chronicle, but bewildering to practice. E.M. FORSTER I am an unspeakable of the Oscar Wilde sort. E.M. FORSTER One minute. You know nothing about him. He probably has his own joys and interests- wife, children, ... E.M. FORSTER So never give in,” continued the girl, and restated again and again the vague yet convincing plea ... E.M. FORSTER He built up a situation that was far enough from the truth. It never occurred to him that Helen was ... E.M. FORSTER Don't believe those lies about intellectual people. They're only written to soothe the majority. E.M. FORSTER With the first jolt he was in daylight; they had left the gateways of King’s Cross, and were under... E.M. FORSTER It comes to this then: there always have been people like me and always will be, and generally they ... E.M. FORSTER They had never struggled, and only a struggle twists sentimentality and lust together into love. E.M. FORSTER A happy ending was imperative. I shouldn't have bothered to write otherwise. I was determined that i... E.M. FORSTER He had a theory that musicians are incredibly complex, and know far less than other artists what the... E.M. FORSTER This solitude opressed her; she was accustomed to have her thoughts confirmed by others or, at all e... E.M. FORSTER She would only point out the salvation that was latent in his own soul, and in the soul of every man... E.M. FORSTER The tragedy of preparedness has scarcely been handled, save by the Greeks. Life is indeed dangerous,... E.M. FORSTER She could not explain in so many words, but she felt that those who prepare for all the emergencies ... E.M. FORSTER Death destroys a man: the idea of Death saves him. E.M. FORSTER But the poetry of that kiss, the wonder of it, the magic that there was in life for hours after it--... E.M. FORSTER Some leave our life with tears, others with an insane frigidity; Mrs. Wilcox had taken the middle co... E.M. FORSTER Away she hurried, not beautiful, not supremely brilliant, but filled with something that took the pl... E.M. FORSTER Life's very difficult and full of surprises. At all events, I've got as far as that. To be humble an... E.M. FORSTER And the goblins--they had not really been there at all? They were only the phantoms of cowardice and... E.M. FORSTER People have their own deaths as well as their own lives, and even if there is nothing beyond death, ... E.M. FORSTER She hated war and liked soldiers—it was one of her amiable inconsistencies. E.M. FORSTER Science explained people, but could not understand them. E.M. FORSTER There's never any great risk as long as you have money. E.M. FORSTER I am sure that if the mothers of various nations could meet, there would be no more wars. E.M. FORSTER It is thus, if there is any rule, that we ought to die--neither as victim nor as fanatic, but as the... E.M. FORSTER If we lived for ever, what you say would be true. But we have to die, we have to leave life presentl... E.M. FORSTER She must be assured that it is not a criminal offense to love at first sight. E.M. FORSTER It is only that people are far more different than is pretended. All over the world men and women ar... E.M. FORSTER Margaret realized the chaotic nature of our daily life, and its difference from the orderly sequence... E.M. FORSTER All men are equal - all men, that is, who possess umbrellas. E.M. FORSTER To trust people is a luxury in which only the wealthy can indulge; the poor cannot afford it. E.M. FORSTER What is the good of your stars and trees, your sunrise and the wind, if they do not enter into our d... E.M. FORSTER A funeral is not death, any more than baptism is birth or marriage union. All three are the clumsy d... E.M. FORSTER The crime of suicide lies rather in its disregard for the feelings of those whom we leave behind. E.M. FORSTER Oh, the English! They are always thinking of tea. They carry it by the kilogram, and they are so clu... E.M. FORSTER While her lips talked culture, her heart was planning to invite him to tea E.M. FORSTER It is the starved imagination, not the well-nourished, that is afraid. E.M. FORSTER It makes a difference, doesn't it, whether we fence ourselves in, or whether we are fenced out by th... E.M. FORSTER …to descend from bright heaven to earth, whereon there are shadows because there are hills… E.M. FORSTER A friendliness, as of dwarfs shaking hands, was in the air... E.M. FORSTER He never even thought of tenderness and emotion; his considerations about Durham remained cold. Durh... E.M. FORSTER If I had to choose between
betraying my country
or betraying my friend,
I hope I should have the
GUT... E.M. FORSTER (18TH CENTURY WRITER) The preacher must have, "bonds of a servant with the spirit of a king, a king in high, royal, indepe... E.M. BOUNDS God’s revelation does not need the light of human genius, the polish and strength of human culture... E.M. BOUNDS The Church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men. E.M. BOUNDS Our devotions are not measured by the clock, but time is of the essence. The ability to wait, and st... E.M. BOUNDS What the Church needs to-day is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and nove... E.M. BOUNDS Here's to real heroes, not the ones who carry us off into the sunset but the ones who help us choose... E.M. TIPPETTS The pain is real. Flowing as a brook beneath my flesh. I am broken, and yet, I still breathe. E.M. BENTON The key thing is that you start every film from sort of a blank page, almost like you discover it li... MARC FORSTER Genius is the power of lighting one's own fire. JOHN FORSTER Genius and its rewards are briefly told:
A liberal nature and a niggard doom,
A difficult jour... JOHN FORSTER You can win it in the late innings if you never quit. ROBERT FORSTER I write in the morning, I walk in the afternoon and I read in the evening. It's a very easy, lov... MARGARET FORSTER Every shot is unique, even if it's just a close-up, an insert of your hand. You've got to wo... ROBERT FORSTER God's always got a custard pie up his sleeve. MARGARET FORSTER You have to have energy off the bench. That's an area we can get an advantage, so our reserves have ... CHRIS FORSTER I might be damned today, but tomorrow I promise you'll be taking my place. KALEY FORSTER For me, 'The Kite Runner' became about a guy who's emotionally shut down because he hasn... MARC FORSTER You've got to internalize the character. You've got to learn the words. These are separate t... ROBERT FORSTER It's what you do every time. You isolate what you know, and you create a mental image of what yo... ROBERT FORSTER Three days after my brother died, my father was in the hospital. He just did not want to live anymor... MARC FORSTER On 'Stranger Than Fiction,' the script was so good that I stuck to every line because it was... MARC FORSTER Take Shaun White. A rider of his stature has so many opportunities on and off the board that a team ... JEREMY FORSTER I never have that 'we were robbed' feeling when looking around now at where some of our contemporari... ROBERT FORSTER The scholarship of Christian academics isn’t recognized as scholarship at all unless it conforms t... GREG FORSTER To sustain moral behavior, people need more than simply a list of rules. They need to be people who ... GREG FORSTER There is an obvious advantage to the UK industry if its beef is sold in a different section of the c... ROBERT FORSTER I do try to be resentful, I really do, but I just can't bring myself to do it. ROBERT FORSTER The other thing about this reunion tour is that we're not all being represented by different lawyers... ROBERT FORSTER I do try to be resentful, I really do, but I just can't bring myself to do it. ROBERT FORSTER It will be the same story as the past two games - we'll see if quick can beat big. We have to make t... DAVE FORSTER Our defense did it. In the fourth quarter they were tired, their shots were short. But our offensive... DAVE FORSTER The girls were dead-dog excited. We're a little bit worn out but excited, too. We've been close in t... DAVE FORSTER A lot better to play like this and win compared to last year. And we hope to carry over the way we s... DAVE FORSTER The score was the same, but almost everything else was completely different, JOHN FORSTER It's just a transition period. April can still bring some (snowy) stuff here when it gets pretty col... GARY FORSTER It's so empowering for that to happen under the supervision of young adults who aren't their parents... GARY FORSTER Good camps fulfill a parent's number one concern -- safety -- while supplying experiences and lesson... GARY FORSTER What exactly constitutes an emergency in a modelling agency? Two girls fighting to death with a hair... KATE FORSTER Liberals and conservatives tend to view the economy in purely materialistic terms. They make growth,... GREG FORSTER We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for... E. M. FORSTER We cast a shadow on something wherever we stand. E. M. FORSTER What is the good of your stars and trees, your sunrise and the wind, if they do not enter into our d... 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 ... E. M. FORSTER History develops, art stands still. E. M. FORSTER How can I know what I think till I see what I say? E. M. FORSTER I am sure that if the mothers of various nations could meet, there would be no more wars. E. M. FORSTER Think before you speak is criticism's motto; speak before you think, creation's. E. M. FORSTER We are all like Scheherazade's husband, in that we want to know what happens next. E. M. FORSTER The fact is we can only love what we know personally. And we cannot know much. In public affairs, in... E. M. FORSTER Death destroys a man, but the idea of death saves him. E. M. FORSTER Either life entails courage, or it ceases to be life. E. M. FORSTER Oxford is Oxford: not a mere receptacle for youth, like Cambridge. Perhaps it wants its inmates to l... E. M. FORSTER Two cheers for Democracy; one because it admits variety, and two because it permits criticism. E. M. FORSTER Love is always being given where it is not required. E. M. FORSTER The four characteristics of humanism are curiosity, a free mind, belief in good taste, and belief in... E. M. FORSTER Only a struggle twists sentimentality and lust together into love. E. M. FORSTER I'm a holy man minus the holiness. E. M. FORSTER A poem is true if it hangs together. Information points to something else. A poem points to nothing ... E. M. FORSTER The idea that nations should love one another, or that business concerns or marketing boards should ... E. M. FORSTER Death destroys a man, the idea of Death saves him. E. M. FORSTER The final test for a novel will be our affection for it, as it is the test of our friends, and of an... E. M. FORSTER Creative writers are always greater than the causes that they represent. E. M. FORSTER Unless we remember we cannot understand. E. M. FORSTER We are not concerned with the very poor. They are unthinkable, and only to be approached by the stat... E. M. FORSTER Spoon feeding in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon. E. M. FORSTER America is rather like life. You can usually find in it what you look for. It will probably be inter... E. M. FORSTER There lies at the back of every creed something terrible and hard for which the worshipper may one d... E. M. FORSTER Beauty ought to look a little surprised: it is the emotion that best suits her face. The beauty who ... E. M. FORSTER Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both wil... E. M. FORSTER Towns are excrescences, gray fluxions, where men, hurrying to find one another, have lost themselves... E. M. FORSTER I have only got down on to paper, really, three types of people: the person I think I am, the people... E. M. FORSTER Ideas are fatal to caste. E. M. FORSTER Art for art's sake? I should think so, and more so than ever at the present time. It is the one orde... E. M. FORSTER Failure or success seem to have been allotted to men by their stars. But they retain the power of wr... E. M. FORSTER As long as learning is connected with earning, as long as certain jobs can only be reached through e... E. M. FORSTER Oxford is -- Oxford: not a mere receptacle for youth, like Cambridge. Perhaps it wants its inmates t... E. M. FORSTER Lord I disbelieve -- help thou my unbelief. E. M. FORSTER