Quotes from E.M. Forster

Ser homossexual num ambiente britânico formal e legalmente avesso ao que era visto como um desvio da norma levou sem dúvida Forster a dar ao corpo seu devido valor. Não escondeu suas preferências sexuais dos amigos próximos mas nunca as assumiu publicamente; manteve um longo relacionamento com um homem casado embora ele mesmo, Forster... vivesse sozinho — ou com a mãe.

Her quiet, uneventful childhood must end, and it has ended

He remained in the grip of a certain devil whom the modern world knows as self-consciousness, and whom the medieval, with dimmer vision, worshipped as asceticism

You don't love me, evidently. I dare say you are right not to. But it would hurt a little less if I knew why." "Because"—a phrase came to her, and she accepted it—"you're the sort who can't know any one intimately.

Yes?" asked Margaret, for there was a long pause—a pause that was somehow akin to the flicker of the fire, the quiver of the reading-lamp upon their hands, the white blur from the window; a pause of shifting and eternal shadows.

O Reitor veio em auxílio dos dois sunningtonianos [Maurice e Chapman]. Disse ao seu jovem primo [Risley]: - Estás a ser insensato quanto à memória. Confudes aquilo que é importante com aquilo que marca. Sem dúvida que o Chapman e o Hall [Maurice] se lembrarão sempre que te conheceram. ----------------------------------------------------- You confuse what's important with what's impressive. P. 35, MAURICE, E.M. FORSTER

She was descending quicker than most women into the colourless years, and the look in her eyes confessed it.

Ronny was ruffled. From his mother's description he had thought the doctor might be young Muggins from over the Ganges, and had brought out all the comradely emotions. What a mix-up! Why hadn't she indicated by the tone of her voice that she was talking about an Indian?

The complexion of his mind turned from human to political. He thought no longer, "Can I get on with people?" but "Are they stronger than I?" breathing the prevalent miasma.

People at Stettin drop things into boats out of overhanging warehouses. At least, our cousins do, but aren't particularly rich. The town isn't interesting, except for a clock that rolls its eyes, and the view of the Oder, which truly is something special. Oh, Mrs. Wilcox, you would love the Oder! The river, or rather rivers—there seem to be dozens of them—are intense blue, and the plain they run through an intensest green.

He did not kiss her, for the hour was half-past twelve, and the car was passing by the stables of Buckingham Palace.

She was not a Christian in the accepted sense; she did not believe that God had ever worked among us as a young artisan.

When proved wrong, he was particularly exasperating; he always managed to suggest that she needn't have bothered to prove it. The point she made was never the relevant point, her arguments conclusive but barren, she was reminded that he had expert knowledge and she none, and that experience would not help her because she could not interpret it.

Uma noite, pouco antes das dez horas, escapou-se para Trinity e aguardou no Grande Claustro que os portões se fechassem atrás dele. (...) Estava no meio de homens de Trinity - todos de imensa inteligência e cultura. O grupo de Maurice gozava com Trinity, mas não podiam ignorar o seu esplendor arrogante, ou negar a superioridade que mal se dá ao trabalho de se afirmar. ----------------------------------------------------- P.38, MAURICE, E.M. FORSTER

Margaret realized the chaotic nature of our daily life, and its difference from the orderly sequence that has been fabricated by historians. Actual life is full of false clues and sign-posts that lead to nowhere. With infinite effort we nerve ourselves for a crisis that never comes. The most successful career must show a waste of strength that might have moved mountains, and the most unsuccessful is not that of a man who is taken unprepared, but of him who has prepared and is never taken.

I did not fear that I might tread upon a live rail and be killed. I feared something far more intangible-doing what was not contemplated by the Machine. Then I said to myself, "Man is the measure", and I went, and after many visits I found an opening.

Where there is money and no inclination to violence, tragedy cannot be generated.

Me besarás?— dijo Maurice, mientras los gorriones despertaban sobre ellos en los aleros, y lejos, en los bosques, los palomos comenzaban a arrullarse.

Nothing enrages Anglo-India more than the lantern of reason if it is exhibited for one moment after its extinction is decreed. All over Chandrapore that day the Europeans were putting aside their normal personalities and sinking themselves in their community. Pity, wrath, heroism, filled them, but the power of putting two and two together was annihilated.

He had stopped loving Maurice and should have to say so plainly.

Come this way immediately," commanded Cecil, who always felt that he must lead women, though knew not whither, and protect them, though he knew not against what.

A novel must give a sense of permanence as well as a sense of life.

Cuando el amor se desvanece se le recuerda no como amor, sino como algo distinto. Bienaventurados los ignorantes que lo olvidan por completo, y no son conscientes de los anhelos y de los absurdos del pasado, de las largas conversaciones sin propósito.

People never touched one another. The custom had become obsolete, owing to the Machine.