I suggest that 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 gone ourselves. 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
Unless we remember we cannot understand. E M Forster
America is rather like life. You can usually find in it what you look for. It will probably be interesting, and it is sure to be large. E M Forster
There is something majestic in the bad taste of Italy. E M Forster
A facade of skyscrapers facing a lake and behind the facade, every type of dubiousness. E.M. Forster (on Chicago)
As long as learning is connected with earning, as long as certain jobs can only be reached through exams, so long must we take this examination system seriously. If another ladder to employment was contrived, much so-called education would disappear, and no one would be a penny the stupider. E M Forster
It will be generally admitted that Beethoven’s Fifth is the most sublime noise that has ever penetrated into the ear of man. E M Forster
Oxford is – Oxford: not a mere receptacle for youth, like Cambridge. Perhaps it wants its inmates to love it rather than to love one another. E M Forster
I’m a holy man minus the holiness. E M Forster
Tolerance is a very dull virtue. It is boring. Unlike love, it has always had a bad press. It is negative. It merely means putting up with people, being able to stand things. E M Forster
No man can be an agnostic who has a sense of humour. E M Forster
Art for art’s sake? I should think so, and more so than ever at the present time. It is the one orderly product which our middling race has produced. It is the cry of a thousand sentinels, the echo from a thousand labyrinths, it is the lighthouse which cannot be hidden, it is the best evidence we can have of our dignity. E M Forster