21 Quotes by H.M. Forester

°Fake it till you make it,° the inner voice advised. °I mean it. As long as you remember that you are consciously acting, you can play the As If experiment. Act “as if ...” you are relaxed and confident in social positions. Act “as if ...” you really know . I don’t mean acting in a superior manner or bragging; just that you adopt a more positive attitude to life and to your newfound studies.°

Maybe like the never-ending stories within stories of the One Thousand and One Nights, life is dream within dream all the way through?

Real patience is not the same as waiting impatiently for something for a long time. Patience is having patience with patience.

More recently, we’ve reached the lowest common denominator, and populism, politics and media have dispensed with old-fashioned values such as truth, honour and chivalry, to the point of arguing, in an Orwellian way, that “up is down”, “wrong is right”, and “truth is fake news”.

All you had to do was crack up and beg to see the Governor; grovel at his feet and admit to being a dissident; heartily repent your sins, and volunteer for elective brain surgery.

Their methods were especially crude and most of these former friends were now born again model citizens; lobotomized; or burnt out shells.

The worst of all was to be faced with the interrogation technique of Thirty Seconds. The interrogator would say something and you had to respond quickly, without once repeating yourself or using the personal pronoun. Very few dissidents could last the full thirty seconds, and a refusal to comply was taken as equal proof of dissidence.

Sorcery rules the world. Of course, most don't call it sorcery; indeed, many would be horrified by such a notion.

Is that a banana in your lunch box, or are you just pleased to see me?