E. M. Forster (1879-1970)

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 class differences and hypocrisy. His views as a humanist are at the heart of his work.

Quotes

The crime of suicide lies in its disregard for the feelings of those whom we leave behind.
We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
But the body is deeper than the soul and its secrets inscrutable.

Body
Pathos, piety, courage, — they exist, but are identical, and so is filth. Everything exists, nothing has value.
How do I know what I have to say wntil I see what I have said?
The armour of falsehood is subtly wrought out of darkness, and hides a man not only from others, but from his own soul.
Life is indeed dangerous, but not in the way morality would have us believe. It is indeed unmanageable, but the essence of it is not a battle. It is unmanageable because it is a romance, and its essence is romantic beauty.
I would rather be a coward than brave because people hurt you when you are brave.

Courage, Cowardice
If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.
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
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 own particular path than we have yet got ourselves.
Have you ever noticed that there are people who do things which are most indelicate, and yet at the same time - beautiful?