Quotes

“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.” Edward Morgan Forster

“Surely the only sound foundation for a civilization is a sound state of mind.” Edward Morgan Forster

“The final test for a novel will be our affection for it, as it is the test of our friends, and of anything else which we cannot define.” Edward Morgan Forster

“The more highly public life is organized the lower does its morality sink.” Edward Morgan Forster

“The work of art assumes the existence of the perfect spectator, and is indifferent to the fact that no such person exists.” Edward Morgan Forster

“There is something majestic in the bad taste of Italy.” Edward Morgan Forster

“There lies at the back of every creed something terrible and hard for which the worshipper may one day be required to suffer.” Edward Morgan Forster

“Very notable was his distinction between coarseness and vulgarity, coarseness, revealing something; vulgarity, concealing something.” Edward Morgan Forster

“We are not concerned with the very poor. They are unthinkable, and only to be approached by the statistician or the poet.” Edward Morgan Forster

“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.” Edward Morgan Forster

“The only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little farther down our particular path than we have yet got ourselves.” Edward Morgan Forster

“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.” Edward Morgan Forster

“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.” Edward Morgan 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.” Edward Morgan 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.” Edward Morgan Forster

“I never could get on with representative individuals but people who existed on their own account and with whom it might therefore be possible to be friends.” Edward Morgan 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.” Edward Morgan Forster

“I am sure that if the mothers of various nations could meet, there would be no more wars.” Edward Morgan Forster

“One must be fond of people and trust them if one is not to make a mess of life.” Edward Morgan Forster

“What is the good of your stars and trees, your sunrise and the wind, if they do not enter into our daily lives?” Edward Morgan Forster

“The main facts in human life are five: birth, food, sleep, love and death.” Edward Morgan Forster

“Love is always being given where it is not required.” Edward Morgan Forster

“Think before you speak is criticism's motto; speak before you think, creation's.” Edward Morgan Forster

“The four characteristics of humanism are curiosity, a free mind, belief in good taste, and belief in the human race.” Edward Morgan Forster

“Spoon feeding in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon.” Edward Morgan Forster

“One always tends to overpraise a long book, because one has got through it.” Edward Morgan 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.” Edward Morgan Forster

“History develops, art stands still.” Edward Morgan Forster

“Unless we remember we cannot understand.” Edward Morgan Forster

“Logic! Good gracious! What rubbish!” Edward Morgan Forster