“The historian must have some conception of how men who are not historians behave. Otherwise he will move in a world of the dead. He can only gain that conception through personal experience, and he can only use his personal experiences when he is a genius.”
Experience
“Beauty ought to look a little surprised: it is the emotion that best suits her face. The beauty who does not look surprised, who accepts her position as her due - she reminds us too much of a prima donna.”
BeautyAll Quotes by E. M. Forster
“I am so used to seeing the sort of play which deals with one man and two women. They do not leave me with the feeling I have made a full theatrical meal they do not give me the experience of the multiplicity of life.”
Experience“History develops, art stands still.”
Art“England has always been disinclined to accept human nature.”
Nature“I am sure that if the mothers of various nations could meet, there would be no more wars.”
Mom“Charm, in most men and nearly all women, is a decoration.”
Women“I have no mystic faith in the people. I have in the individual.”
Faith“We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”
Life“Either life entails courage, or it ceases to be life.”
Courage“A poem is true if it hangs together. Information points to something else. A poem points to nothing but itself.”
Poetry“The people I respect most behave as if they were immortal and as if society was eternal.”
Respect“Works of art, in my opinion, are the only objects in the material universe to possess internal order, and that is why, though I don't believe that only art matters, I do believe in Art for Art's sake.”
Art“Death destroys a man, but the idea of death saves him.”
Death“Beauty ought to look a little surprised: it is the emotion that best suits her face. The beauty who does not look surprised, who accepts her position as her due - she reminds us too much of a prima donna.”
Beauty“One must be fond of people and trust them if one is not to make a mess of life.”
Trust“Only people who have been allowed to practise freedom can have the grown-up look in their eyes.”
Freedom“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.”
Death“The work of art assumes the existence of the perfect spectator, and is indifferent to the fact that no such person exists.”
Art“One of the evils of money is that it tempts us to look at it rather than at the things that it buys.”
Money“Nonsense and beauty have close connections.”
Beauty