Edward Forster Quotes

Most popular Edward Forster Quotes

I do not believe in Belief. - Edward Forster quote.
I do not believe in Belief.
— Edward Forster The Personal Philosophies of Certain Eminent Men and Women

beliefs

Nonsense and beauty have close connection. - Edward Forster quote.
Nonsense and beauty have close connection.
— Edward Forster
How can I tell what I think till I see what I say? - Edward Forster quote.
How can I tell what I think till I see what I say?
— Edward Forster
Either life entails courage, or it ceases to be life. - Edward Forster quote.
Either life entails courage, or it ceases to be life.
— Edward Forster Pharos and Pharillon: A Novelist’s Sketchbook

courage

One has two duties—to be worried and not to be worried. - Edward Forster quote.
One has two duties—to be worried and not to be worried.
— Edward Forster

duty

Truth is a flower in whose neighborhood others must wither. - Edward Forster quote.
Truth is a flower in whose neighborhood others must wither.
— Edward Forster Albinger Harvest

truth

Where there is officialism every human relationship suffers. - Edward Forster quote.
Where there is officialism every human relationship suffers.
— Edward Forster A Passage to India
To make us feel small in the right way is a function of art. - Edward Forster quote.
To make us feel small in the right way is a function of art.
— Edward Forster Two Cheers for Democracy

art

Ecstasy cannot last, but can carve a channel for something lasting. - Edward Forster quote.
Ecstasy cannot last, but can carve a channel for something lasting.
— Edward Forster Maurice
The main facts in human life are five: birth, food, sleep, love and death. - Edward Forster quote.
The main facts in human life are five: birth, food, sleep, love and death.
— Edward Forster

life

America is rather like life. You can usually find in it what you look for. - Edward Forster quote.
America is rather like life. You can usually find in it what you look for.
— Edward Forster The Listener

America

If there is on earth a house with many mansions, it is the house of words. - Edward Forster quote.
If there is on earth a house with many mansions, it is the house of words.
— Edward Forster Two Cheers for Democracy

words

Listening is a very dangerous thing. If one listens, one may be convinced. - Edward Forster quote.
Listening is a very dangerous thing. If one listens, one may be convinced.
— Edward Forster

listening

Spoon feeding in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon. - Edward Forster quote.
Spoon feeding in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon.
— Edward Forster The Observer

education

Think before you speak is criticism's motto; speak before you think creation's. - Edward Forster quote.
Think before you speak is criticism's motto; speak before you think creation's.
— Edward Forster Two Cheers for Democracy

creativity

One must be fond of people and trust them if one is not to make a mess of life. - Edward Forster quote.
One must be fond of people and trust them if one is not to make a mess of life.
— Edward Forster The Personal Philosophies of Certain Eminent Men and Women

trust

Beauty ought to look a little surprised: it is the emotion that best suits her face. - Edward Forster quote.
Beauty ought to look a little surprised: it is the emotion that best suits her face.
— Edward Forster Aspects of the Novel

beauty

The historian must have some conception of how people who are not historians behave. - Edward Forster quote.
The historian must have some conception of how people who are not historians behave.
— Edward Forster
Our final experience, like our first, is conjectural.  We move between two darknesses. - Edward Forster quote.
Our final experience, like our first, is conjectural.  We move between two darknesses.
— Edward Forster Aspects of the Novel

death

The emotions may be endless. The more we express them, the more we may have to express. - Edward Forster quote.
The emotions may be endless. The more we express them, the more we may have to express.
— Edward Forster

emotion

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 Forster quote.
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 Forster
Life never gives us what we want at the moment that we consider appropriate.  Adventures do occur, but not punctually. - Edward Forster quote.
Life never gives us what we want at the moment that we consider appropriate.  Adventures do occur, but not punctually.
— Edward Forster A Passage to India

adventure

Faith, to my mind, is a stiffening process, a sort of mental starch, which ought to be applied as sparingly as possible. - Edward Forster quote.
Faith, to my mind, is a stiffening process, a sort of mental starch, which ought to be applied as sparingly as possible.
— Edward Forster The Personal Philosophies of Certain Eminent Men and Women

faith

What is wonderful about great literature is that it transforms the man who reads it towards the condition of the man who wrote. - Edward Forster quote.
What is wonderful about great literature is that it transforms the man who reads it towards the condition of the man who wrote.
— Edward Forster

books

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 Forster quote.
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 Forster Two Cheers for Democracy

books

We are willing enough to praise freedom when she is safely tucked away in the past and cannot be a nuisance,  In the present, amidst dangers whose outcomes we cannot foresee, we get nervous about her, and admit censorship. - Edward Forster quote.
We are willing enough to praise freedom when she is safely tucked away in the past and cannot be a nuisance,  In the present, amidst dangers whose outcomes we cannot foresee, we get nervous about her, and admit censorship.
— Edward Forster Two Cheers for Democracy

censorship

Art . . . is the one orderly product which our middling race has produced.  It is the cry of a thousand sentinels, the echo from a thousand labyrinths, it is the lighthouse which cannot be hidden . . . it is the best evidence we can have of our dignity. - Edward Forster quote.
Art . . . is the one orderly product which our middling race has produced.  It is the cry of a thousand sentinels, the echo from a thousand labyrinths, it is the lighthouse which cannot be hidden . . . it is the best evidence we can have of our dignity.
— Edward Forster Monitor: An Anthology

dignity

What about the creative state?  In it a man is taken out of himself.  He lets down as it were a bucket into his subconscious and draws up something which is normally beyond his reach.  He mixes this thing with his normal experiences, and out of the mixture he makes a work of art. - Edward Forster quote.
What about the creative state?  In it a man is taken out of himself.  He lets down as it were a bucket into his subconscious and draws up something which is normally beyond his reach.  He mixes this thing with his normal experiences, and out of the mixture he makes a work of art.
— Edward Forster Two Cheers for Democracy

creativity

Faith, to my mind, is a stiffening process, a sort of mental starch.
— Edward Forster

faith

To make us feel small in the right way is a function of art; men can only make us feel small in the wrong way.
— Edward Forster

art