E. M. Forster Quotes

Author Image

E. M. Forster

Profession : Novelist

Birth : January 1, 1879

Love is always being given where it is not required.

E. M. Forster

I have no mystic faith in the people. I have in the individual.

E. M. Forster

Either life entails courage, or it ceases to be life.

E. M. Forster

What is the good of your stars and trees, your sunrise and the wind, if they do not enter into our daily lives?

E. M. Forster

Charm, in most men and nearly all women, is a decoration.

E. M. Forster

I am sure that if the mothers of various nations could meet, there would be no more wars.

E. M. Forster

If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.

E. M. Forster

History develops, art stands still.

E. M. Forster

Death destroys a man, but the idea of death saves him.

E. M. Forster

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

E. M. Forster

People have their own deaths as well as their own lives, and even if there is nothing beyond death, we shall differ in our nothingness.

E. M. Forster

We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.

E. M. Forster

The king died and then the queen died is a story. The king died, and then queen died of grief is a plot.

E. M. Forster

How can I know what I think till I see what I say?

E. M. Forster

We cast a shadow on something wherever we stand.

E. M. Forster

At the side of the everlasting why, is a yes, and a yes, and a yes.

E. M. Forster

Nonsense and beauty have close connections.

E. M. Forster

The four characteristics of humanism are curiosity, a free mind, belief in good taste, and belief in the human race.

E. M. Forster

The only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little farther down our particular path than we have yet got ourselves.

E. M. Forster

One must be fond of people and trust them if one is not to make a mess of life.

E. M. Forster