You want to love everyone equally, and that's worse than impossible--it's wrong. E. M. Forster More Quotes by E. M. Forster More Quotes From E. M. Forster She had been so wicked that in all her life she had done only one good deed-given an onion to a beggar. So she went to hell. As she lay in torment she saw the onion, lowered down from heaven by an angel. She caught hold of it. He began to pull her up. The other damned saw what was happening and caught hold of it too. She was indignant and cried, "Let go-it's my onion," and as soon as she said, "my onion," the stalk broke and she fell back into the flames. E. M. Forster flames angel letting-go A novel is based on evidence, + or -x, the unknown quantity being the temperament of the novelist, and the unknown quantity always modifies the effect of the evidence, and sometimes transforms it entirely. E. M. Forster novelists sometimes fiction It is now only in letters I write what I feel: not in literature any more, and I seldom say it, because I keep trying to be amusing. E. M. Forster literature writing trying 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 novelists queens character Pity wraps the student of the past in an ambrosial cloud, and washes his limbs with eternal youth. E. M. Forster students clouds past 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 august poetry men Italy and London are the only places where I don't feel to exist on sufferance. E. M. Forster london feels There's nothing like a debate to teach one quickness. I often wish I had gone in for them when I was a youngster. It would have helped me no end. E. M. Forster debate gone wish I have no mystic faith in the people. I have in the individual. E. M. Forster individual literature people [...] it is right to be kind and even sacrifice ourselves to people who need kindness and lie in our way - otherwise, besides failing to help them, we run into the aridity of self-development. To seek for recipients of one's goodness, to play the Potted Jesus leads to the contray the Christian danger. E. M. Forster christian running jesus Democracy is not a Beloved Republic really, and never will be. But it is less hateful than other contemporary forms of government, and to that extent deserves our support. E. M. Forster support democracy government It is pleasant to be transferred from an office where one is afraid of a sergeant-major into an office where one can intimidate generals, and perhaps this is why history is so attractive to the more timid among us. We can recover self-confidence by snubbing the dead. E. M. Forster self-confidence office history We are all like Scheherazade's husband, in that we want to know what happens next. E. M. Forster husband literature want I don't think literature will be purged until its philosophic pretentiousness is extruded, and I shant live to see that purge, nor perhaps when it has happened will anything survive. E. M. Forster philosophic literature thinking All that is observable in a man-that is to say his actions and such of his spiritual existence as can be deduced from his actions-falls into the domain of history. E. M. Forster spiritual men fall Humility is a quality for which I have only a limited admiration. In many phases of life it is a great mistake and degenerates into defensiveness or hypocrisy. E. M. Forster hypocrisy humility mistake What the world most needs today are negative virtues - not minding people, not being huffy, touchy, irritable or revengeful. E. M. Forster huffy people negative Neanderthal man listened to stories, if one may judge by the shape of his skull. E. M. Forster skulls judging men Tolerance is just a makeshift, suitable for an overcrowded and overheated planet. It carries on when love gives out, and love generally gives out as soon as we move away from our home and our friends. E. M. Forster home giving moving Those who search for truth are too conscious of the maze to be hard on others... E. M. Forster mazes hard conscious
