690 Quotes by E. M. Forster

Nature pulls one way and human nature another.

In Europe life retreats out of the cold, and exquisite fireside myths have resulted—Balder, Persephone—but [in India] the retreat is from the source of life, the treacherous sun, and no poetry adorns it because disillusionment cannot be beautiful. Men yearn for poetry though they may not confess it; they desire that joy shall be graceful and sorrow august and infinity have a form, and India fails to accommodate them.

But Humanity, in its desire for comfort, had over-reached itself. It had exploited the riches of nature too far. Quietly and complacently, it was sinking into decadence, and progress had come to mean the progress of the Machine.

Lucy's Sabbath was generally of this amphibious nature. She kept it without hypocrisy in the morning, and broke it without reluctance in the afternoon.

È una stanza rovinata dagli uomini nel tentativo di renderla bella per le donne. Gli uomini non sanno quello che vogliamo.

Take an old man's word; there's nothing worse than a muddle in all the world. It is easy to face Death and Fate, and the things that sound so dreadful. It is on my muddles that I look back with horror - on the things that I might have avoided. We can help one another but little. I used to think I could teach young people the whole of life, but I know better now, and all my teaching of George has come down to this: beware of muddle.

Il vento le scompigliava i capelli, il sole li glorificava.

By the side of the everlasting Why there is a Yes--a transitory Yes if you like, but a Yes.

Alec held out his hand. Maurice took it, and they knew at that moment the greatest triumph ordinary man can win.