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Top 500 E. M. Forster Quotes (2025 Update)
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E. M. Forster Quote: “Do not be proud of your inconsistency. It is a pity, it is a pity that we should be equipped like this. It is a pity that Man cannot be at the same time impressive and truthful.”

151. “Do not be proud of your inconsistency. It is a pity, it is a pity that we should be equipped like this. It is a pity that Man cannot be at the same time impressive and truthful.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “If Miss Honeychurch ever takes to live as she plays, it will be very exciting – both for us and for her.”

152. “If Miss Honeychurch ever takes to live as she plays, it will be very exciting – both for us and for her.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “Surely the only sound foundation for a civilization is a sound state of mind.”

153. “Surely the only sound foundation for a civilization is a sound state of mind.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “Pathos, piety, courage, they exist, but are identical, and so is filth. Everything exists, nothing has value.”

154. “Pathos, piety, courage, they exist, but are identical, and so is filth. Everything exists, nothing has value.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “It is thus, if there is any rule, that we ought to die – neither as victim nor as fanatic, but as the seafarer who can greet with an equal eye the deep that he is entering, and the shore that he must leave.”

155. “It is thus, if there is any rule, that we ought to die – neither as victim nor as fanatic, but as the seafarer who can greet with an equal eye the deep that he is entering, and the shore that he must leave.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “I’m a holy man minus the holiness. Hand that on to your three spies, and tell them to put it in their pipes.”

156. “I’m a holy man minus the holiness. Hand that on to your three spies, and tell them to put it in their pipes.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “I’d far rather leave a thought behind me than a child. Other people can have children.”

157. “I’d far rather leave a thought behind me than a child. Other people can have children.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “If there is on earth a house with many mansions, it is the house of words.”

158. “If there is on earth a house with many mansions, it is the house of words.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “The traveller who has gone to Italy to study the tactile values of Giotto, or the corruption of the Papacy, may return remembering nothing but the blue sky and the men and women who live under it.”

159. “The traveller who has gone to Italy to study the tactile values of Giotto, or the corruption of the Papacy, may return remembering nothing but the blue sky and the men and women who live under it.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “In the creative state 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.”

160. “In the creative state 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.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “Learn instead what I think that Enicharmon thought Urizen thought Gutch thought Ho–Yung thought Chi–Bo–Sing thought LafcadioHearn thought Carlyle thought Mirabeau said about the French Revolution.”

161. “Learn instead what I think that Enicharmon thought Urizen thought Gutch thought Ho–Yung thought Chi–Bo–Sing thought LafcadioHearn thought Carlyle thought Mirabeau said about the French Revolution.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “Do you suppose there’s any difference between spring in nature and spring in man? But there we go, praising the one and condemning the other as improper, ashamed that the same laws work eternally through both.”

162. “Do you suppose there’s any difference between spring in nature and spring in man? But there we go, praising the one and condemning the other as improper, ashamed that the same laws work eternally through both.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “A happy ending was imperative. I shouldn’t have bothered to write otherwise. I was determined that in fiction anyway two men should fall in love and remain in it for the ever and ever that fiction allows, and in this sense, Maurice and Alec still roam the greenwood.”

163. “A happy ending was imperative. I shouldn’t have bothered to write otherwise. I was determined that in fiction anyway two men should fall in love and remain in it for the ever and ever that fiction allows, and in this sense, Maurice and Alec still roam the greenwood.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “The English countryside, its growth and its destruction, is a genuine and tragic theme.”

164. “The English countryside, its growth and its destruction, is a genuine and tragic theme.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “We cast a shadow on something wherever we stand.”

165. “We cast a shadow on something wherever we stand.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “The people I respect most behave as if they were immortal and as if society was eternal.”

166. “The people I respect most behave as if they were immortal and as if society was eternal.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “In Rome one had simply to sit still and feel.”

167. “In Rome one had simply to sit still and feel.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “I’m a holy man minus the holiness.”

168. “I’m a holy man minus the holiness.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “When I think of what life is, and how seldom love is answered by love; it is one of the moments for which the world was made.”

169. “When I think of what life is, and how seldom love is answered by love; it is one of the moments for which the world was made.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “A funeral is not death, any more than baptism is birth or marriage union. All three are the clumsy devices, coming now too late, now too early, by which Society would register the quick motions of man.”

170. “A funeral is not death, any more than baptism is birth or marriage union. All three are the clumsy devices, coming now too late, now too early, by which Society would register the quick motions of man.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “Yes, oh dear, yes, the novel tells a story.”

171. “Yes, oh dear, yes, the novel tells a story.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “All invitations must proceed from heaven perhaps; perhaps it is futile for men to initiate their own unity, they do but widen the gulfs between them by the attempt.”

172. “All invitations must proceed from heaven perhaps; perhaps it is futile for men to initiate their own unity, they do but widen the gulfs between them by the attempt.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “He had shown her all the workings of his soul, mistaking this for love.”

173. “He had shown her all the workings of his soul, mistaking this for love.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “So abased, so monotonous is everything that meets the eye, that when the Ganges comes down it might be expected to wash the excrescence back into the soil. Houses do fall, people are drowned and left rotting, but the general outline of the town persists, welling here, shrinking there, like some low but indestructible form of life.”

174. “So abased, so monotonous is everything that meets the eye, that when the Ganges comes down it might be expected to wash the excrescence back into the soil. Houses do fall, people are drowned and left rotting, but the general outline of the town persists, welling here, shrinking there, like some low but indestructible form of life.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “Italy and London are the only places where I don’t feel to exist on sufferance.”

175. “Italy and London are the only places where I don’t feel to exist on sufferance.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “For it is a serious thing to have been watched. We all radiate something curiously intimate when we believe ourselves to be alone.”

176. “For it is a serious thing to have been watched. We all radiate something curiously intimate when we believe ourselves to be alone.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “It is the function of the novelist to reveal the hidden life at its source: to tell us more about Queen Victoria than could be known, and thus to produce a character who is not the Queen Victoria of history.”

177. “It is the function of the novelist to reveal the hidden life at its source: to tell us more about Queen Victoria than could be known, and thus to produce a character who is not the Queen Victoria of history.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “It so happened that Lucy, who found daily life rather chaotic, entered a more solid world when she opened the piano. She was then no longer either deferential or patronizing; no longer either a rebel or a slave.”

178. “It so happened that Lucy, who found daily life rather chaotic, entered a more solid world when she opened the piano. She was then no longer either deferential or patronizing; no longer either a rebel or a slave.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “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.”

179. “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.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “Man is the measure. That was my first lesson. Man’s feet are the measure for distance, his hands are the measure for ownership, his body is the measure for all that is lovable and desirable and strong.”

180. “Man is the measure. That was my first lesson. Man’s feet are the measure for distance, his hands are the measure for ownership, his body is the measure for all that is lovable and desirable and strong.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “The affections are more reticent than the passions, and their expression more subtle.”

181. “The affections are more reticent than the passions, and their expression more subtle.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “Love and understand the Italians, for the people are more marvellous than the land.”

182. “Love and understand the Italians, for the people are more marvellous than the land.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “Do we find happiness so often that we should turn it off the box when it happens to sit there?”

183. “Do we find happiness so often that we should turn it off the box when it happens to sit there?”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “Love felt and returned, love which our bodies exact and our hearts have transfigured, love which is the most real thing that we shall ever meet, reappeared now as the world’s enemy, and she must stifle it.”

184. “Love felt and returned, love which our bodies exact and our hearts have transfigured, love which is the most real thing that we shall ever meet, reappeared now as the world’s enemy, and she must stifle it.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “The sadness of the incomplete, the sadness that is often Life, but should never be Art.”

185. “The sadness of the incomplete, the sadness that is often Life, but should never be Art.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “To them Howards End was a house; they could not know that to her it had been a spirit, for which she sought a spiritual heir. And – pushing one step farther in these mists – may they not have decided even better than they supposed? Is it credible that the possessions of the spirit can be bequeathed at all? Has the soul offspring? A wych-elm tree, a vine, a wisp of hay with dew on it – can passion for such things be transmitted where there is no bond of blood?”

186. “To them Howards End was a house; they could not know that to her it had been a spirit, for which she sought a spiritual heir. And – pushing one step farther in these mists – may they not have decided even better than they supposed? Is it credible that the possessions of the spirit can be bequeathed at all? Has the soul offspring? A wych-elm tree, a vine, a wisp of hay with dew on it – can passion for such things be transmitted where there is no bond of blood?”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “It makes a difference doesn’t it, whether we fully fence ourselves in, or whether we are fenced out by the barriers of others?”

187. “It makes a difference doesn’t it, whether we fully fence ourselves in, or whether we are fenced out by the barriers of others?”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “I should have gone through life half awake if you’d had the decency to leave me alone. Awake intellectually, yes, and emotionally in a way; but here – ” He pointed with his pipe stem to his heart; and both smiled. “Perhaps we woke up one another. I like to think that anyway.”

188. “I should have gone through life half awake if you’d had the decency to leave me alone. Awake intellectually, yes, and emotionally in a way; but here – ” He pointed with his pipe stem to his heart; and both smiled. “Perhaps we woke up one another. I like to think that anyway.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “Anyone can find places, but the finding of people is a gift from God.”

189. “Anyone can find places, but the finding of people is a gift from God.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “I have said that each aspect of the novel demands a different quality of the reader. Well, the prophetic aspect demands two qualities: humility and the suspension of the sense of humour.”

190. “I have said that each aspect of the novel demands a different quality of the reader. Well, the prophetic aspect demands two qualities: humility and the suspension of the sense of humour.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “It is impossible to foretell the future with any degree of accuracy, that it is impossible to rehearse life. A fault in the scenery, a face in the audience, an interruption of the audience on to the stage, and all our carefully planned gesture mean nothing, or mean too much.”

191. “It is impossible to foretell the future with any degree of accuracy, that it is impossible to rehearse life. A fault in the scenery, a face in the audience, an interruption of the audience on to the stage, and all our carefully planned gesture mean nothing, or mean too much.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “It is not that the Englishman can’t feel-it is that he is afraid to feel. He has been taught at his public school that feeling is bad form. He must not express great joy or sorrow, or even open his mouth too wide when he talks-his pipe might fall out if he did.”

192. “It is not that the Englishman can’t feel-it is that he is afraid to feel. He has been taught at his public school that feeling is bad form. He must not express great joy or sorrow, or even open his mouth too wide when he talks-his pipe might fall out if he did.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “She only felt that the candle would burn better, the packing go easier, the world be happier, if she could give and receive some human love.”

193. “She only felt that the candle would burn better, the packing go easier, the world be happier, if she could give and receive some human love.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “As her time in Florence drew to a close she was only at ease amongst those to whom she felt indifferent.”

194. “As her time in Florence drew to a close she was only at ease amongst those to whom she felt indifferent.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “Suspense: the only literary tool that has any effect upon tyrants and savages.”

195. “Suspense: the only literary tool that has any effect upon tyrants and savages.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “You care for me a little bit, I do think, but I can’t hang all my life on a little bit.”

196. “You care for me a little bit, I do think, but I can’t hang all my life on a little bit.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “In the creative state a man is taken out of himself.”

197. “In the creative state a man is taken out of himself.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “The woman who can’t influence her husband to vote the way she wants ought to be ashamed of herself.”

198. “The woman who can’t influence her husband to vote the way she wants ought to be ashamed of herself.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “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.”

199. “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.”

— E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster Quote: “One can run away from women, turn them out, or give in to them. No fourth course.”

200. “One can run away from women, turn them out, or give in to them. No fourth course.”

— E. M. Forster

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