The work of art assumes the existence of the perfect spectator, and is indifferent to the fact that no such person exists.
Author
E. M. Forster
41 quotations
About E. M. Forster
Edward Morgan Forster was an English author. He is best known for his novels, particularly A Room with a View (1908), Howards End (1910) and A Passage to India (1924). He also wrote numerous short stories, essays, speeches and broadcasts, as well as biographies and pageant plays. His short story "The Machine Stops" (1909) is often viewed as the beginning of technological dystopian fiction. He also co-authored the libretto to Benjamin Britten's opera Billy Budd (1951). Many of his novels examine…
Read on Wikipedia → Find books by E. M. ForsterI 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 mult…
Charm, in most men and nearly all women, is a decoration.
One is certain of nothing but the truth of one's own emotions.
One must be fond of people and trust them if one is not to make a mess of life.
The people I respect most behave as if they were immortal and as if society was eternal.
The people I respect most behave as if they were immortal and as if society was eternal.
The sort of poetry I seek resides in objects man can't touch.
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A poem is true if it hangs together. Information points to something else. A poem points to nothing but itself.
England has always been disinclined to accept human nature.
What is the good of your stars and trees, your sunrise and the wind, if they do not enter into our daily lives?
One of the evils of money is that it tempts us to look at it rather than at the things that it buys.
I am sure that if the mothers of various nations could meet, there would be no more wars.
The main facts in human life are five: birth, food, sleep, love and death.
Love is always being given where it is not required.
The main facts in human life are five: birth, food, sleep, love and death.
We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.
I hate the idea of causes, and if I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.
History develops, art stands still.
What is wonderful about great literature is that it transforms the man who reads it towards the condition of the man who wrote.
What is the good of your stars and trees, your sunrise and the wind, if they do not enter into our daily lives?
Only people who have been allowed to practise freedom can have the grown-up look in their eyes.
We are willing enough to praise freedom when she is safely tucked away in the past and cannot be a nuisance. In the present, amidst dangers whose outcome we cannot foresee, we get nervous about her, …
The main facts in human life are five: birth, food, sleep, love and death.