690 Quotes by E. M. Forster

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.

The house was very quiet, and the fog – we are in November now – pressed against the windows like an excluded ghost.

You mustn’t put off what you think right,” said Hamidullah. “That is why India is in such a plight, because we put off things.

It isn’t possible to love and to part.

I’m a holy man minus the holiness.

You told me once that we shall be judged by our intentions, not by our accomplishments. I thought it a grand remark. But we must intend to accomplish – not sit intending on a chair.

I think he is nice and tiresome. I differ from him on almost every point of any importance, and so, I expect – I may say I hope – you will differ. But his is a type one disagrees with rather than deplores. When he first came here he not unnaturally put people’s backs up. He has no tact and no manners – I don’t mean by that that he has bad manners – and he will not keep his opinions to himself.

I suppose I shall have to live now.

I don’t think I understand people very well. I only know whether I like or dislike them.