Quotes from E.M. Forster

It seems to me that here and there in life we meet with a person or incident that is symbolical. It's nothing in itself, yet for the moment it stands for some eternal principle. We accept it, at whatever costs, and we have accepted life. But if we are frightened and reject it, the moment, so to speak, passes; the symbol is never offered again.

The sense of purity is a puzzling and at times a fearful thing. It seems so noble, and it starts as one with morality. But it is a dangerous guide, and can lead us away not only from what is gracious, but also from what is good.

We have morals and behaviour also, and I don't think this continual secrecy improves them.

The Machine stops.""What do you say?""The Machine is stopping, I know it, I know the signs."She burst into a peal of laugher.

Either life entails courage or it ceases to be life.

He will work off his crudities in time. I rather mistrust young men who slip into life gracefully.

The main facts in human life are five: birth, food, sleep, love and death.

Italy and London are the only places where I don't feel to exist on sufferance.

I won't be protected. I will choose for myself what is ladylike and right. To shield me is an insult.

Hardship is vanishing, but so is style, and the two are more closely connected than the present generation supposes.

Have you ever noticed that there are people who do things which are most indelicate, and yet at the same time - beautiful?