Men were not gods after all, but as human and as clumsy as girls. E. M. Forster More Quotes by E. M. Forster More Quotes From E. M. Forster In the novel we can know people perfectly, and, apart from the general pleasure of reading, we can find here a compensation for their dimness in life. E. M. Forster understanding reading people If there is on earth a house with many mansions, it is the house of words. E. M. Forster mansions earth house The hungry and the homeless don't care about liberty any more than they care about cultural heritage. To pretend that they do care is cant. E. M. Forster heritage liberty care It is the starved imagination, not the well nourished, that is afraid. E. M. Forster wells imagination A critic has no right to the narrowness which is the frequent prerogative of the creative artist. E. M. Forster creative criticism artist A sentence begins quite simply, then it undulates and expands, parentheses intervene like quick-set hedges, the flowers of comparison bloom, and three fields off, like a wounded partridge, crouches the principal verb, making one wonder as one picks it up, poor little thing, whether after all it was worth such a tramp, so many guns, and such expensive dogs, and what, after all, is its relation to the main subject, potted so gaily half a page back, and proving finally to have been in the accusative case. E. M. Forster gun flower dog The novel is a formidable mass, and it is so amorphous - no mountain in it to climb, no Parnassus or Helicon, not even a Pisgah. It is most distinctly one of the moister areas of literature - irrigated by a hundred rills and occasionally degenerating into a swamp. I do not wonder that the poets despise it, though they sometimes find themselves in it by accident. And I am not surprised at the annoyance of the historians when by accident it finds itself among them. E. M. Forster mountain literature writing Paganism is infectious, more infectious than diphtheria or piety. E. M. Forster piety paganism literature Intuition attracts those who wish to be spiritual without any bother, because it promises a heaven where the intuitions of others can be ignored. E. M. Forster spiritual heaven promise Just as words have two functions - information and creation - so each human mind has two personalities, one on the surface, one deeper down. The upper personality... is conscious and alert... The lower personality is a... perfect fool, but without it there is no literature. E. M. Forster creativity perfect two If only the sense of actuality can be lulled-and it sleeps for ever in most historians-there is no passion that cannot be gratified in the past. E. M. Forster passion sleep past Roger Fry is painting me. It is too like me at present, but he is confident he will be able to alter that. Post-Impressionism is at present confined to my lower lip... and to my chin. E. M. Forster portraiture roger able Sex begins before adolescence, and survives sterility; it is indeed coeval with our lives, although at the mating age its effects are more obvious to Society. E. M. Forster mating age sex 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 unity men heaven But why I cry out against Rubens is because he painted undressed people instead of naked ones. E. M. Forster naked people art The strong are so stupid. E. M. Forster strength strong stupid How few writers can prostitute all their powers! E. M. Forster power But after all, what have we to do with taverns? Real menace belongs to the drawing-room. E. M. Forster drawing real class For you cannot have gentility without paying for it. E. M. Forster gentility class manners Hope, politeness, the blowing of a nose, the squeak of a boot, all produce "boum. E. M. Forster boots absence noses