Quotes by E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster

English novelist, short story writer, essayist and librettist

Lived from: 1879 - 1970

Category: Writers (Contemporary) Country: FlagUnited Kingdom

Born: 1 january 1879 Died: 7 june 1970

  • Failure or success seem to have been allotted to men by their stars. But they retain the power of wriggling, of fighting with their star or against it, and in the whole universe the only really interesting movement is this wriggle.
  • I suggest that the only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little further down our particular path than we have yet gone ourselves.
  • Railway termini are our gates to the glorious and the unknown. Through them we pass out into adventure and sunshine, to them, alas! we return.
  • Towns are excrescences, gray fluxions, where men, hurrying to find one another, have lost themselves.
  • Two cheers for Democracy: one because it admits variety and two because it permits criticism.
  • A funeral is not death, any more than baptism is birth or marriage union. All three are the clumsy devices, coming now too late, now too early, by which Society would register the quick motions of man.
  • One always tends to overpraise a long book, because one has got through it.
  • At night, when the curtains are drawn and the fire flickers, my books attain a collective dignity.
  • There lies at the back of every creed something terrible and hard for which the worshipper may one day be required to suffer.
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Quotes 1 till 20 of 46.

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  • A funeral is not death, any more than baptism is birth or marriage union. All three are the clumsy devices, coming now too late, now too early, by which Society would register the quick motions of man.
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  • America is rather like life. You can usually find in it what you look for. It will probably be interesting, and it is sure to be large.
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  • As long as learning is connected with earning, as long as certain jobs can only be reached through exams, so long must we take this examination system seriously. If another ladder to employment was contrived, much so-called education would disappear, and no one would be a penny the stupider.
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  • At night, when the curtains are drawn and the fire flickers, my books attain a collective dignity.
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  • Beauty ought to look a little surprised: it is the emotion that best suits her face. The beauty who does not look surprised, who accepts her position as her due - she reminds us too much of a prima donna.
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  • Creative writers are always greater than the causes that they represent.
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  • Curiosity is one of the lowest of the human faculties. You will have noticed in daily life that when people are inquisitive they nearly always have bad memories and are usually stupid at bottom.
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  • Death destroys a man, the idea of Death saves him.
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  • Failure or success seem to have been allotted to men by their stars. But they retain the power of wriggling, of fighting with their star or against it, and in the whole universe the only really interesting movement is this wriggle.
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  • Faith, to my mind, is a stiffening process, a sort of mental starch, which ought to be applied as sparingly as possible.
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  • How can I know what I think till I see what I say?
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  • How can I tell what I think till I see what I say?
    Aspects of the Novel (1927) Ch. 5
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  • I believe we shall come to care about people less and less. The more people one knows the easier it becomes to replace them. It's one of the curses of London.
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  • I distrust Great Men. They produce a desert of uniformity around them and often a pool of blood too, and I always feel a little man's pleasure when they come a cropper.
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  • I have only got down on to paper, really, three types of people: the person I think I am, the people who irritate me, and the people I'd like to be.
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  • I suggest that the only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little further down our particular path than we have yet gone ourselves.
    Two Cheers for Democracy (1951) A Book That Influenced Me
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  • I suggest that the only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little further down our particular path than we have yet got ourselves.
    ― E. M. Forster
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  • Ideas are fatal to caste.
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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.
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  • It is so difficult – at least, I find it difficult – to understand people who speak the truth.
    A Room with a View (1908) Ch. 1
    ― E. M. Forster
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What are the most famous quotes from E. M. Forster?

The two most famous quotes from E. M. Forster are:

  • "A funeral is not death, any more than baptism is birth or marriage union. All three are the clumsy devices, coming now too late, now too early, by which Society would register the quick motions of man."
  • "America is rather like life. You can usually find in it what you look for. It will probably be interesting, and it is sure to be large."

When did E. M. Forster live?

E. M. Forster was born in 1879 and died in the year 1970.