Personal relations are the important thing for ever and ever, and not this outer life of telegrams and anger.
Human relations are impossible. When they are real they are uncomfortable, and when they are comfortable they are unreal. It was for the journey into solitude that the human soul was created.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Human relationships can be paradoxical, often feeling uncomfortable yet being essential for genuine connection.
This quote by E.M. Forster suggests that human relationships exist in a complex state where true connections can be uncomfortable and challenging, leading to the notion that when relationships feel easy or comfortable, they may lack authenticity. Forster's reflection on solitude indicates that the journey of the soul requires introspection and a deeper understanding of oneself, suggesting that solitude is a vital component of human experience.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the challenges of authentic relationships, this quote can highlight the complexities involved.
More from E. M. Forster
All quotes →A poem is true if it hangs together. Information points to something else. A poem points to nothing but itself.
One must be fond of people and trust them if one is not to make a mess of life.
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.
The fact is we can only love what we know personally. And we cannot know much. In public affairs, in the rebuilding of civilization, something less dramatic and emotional is needed, namely tolerance.
One person with passion is better than forty people merely interested.
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The Greeks possessed a knowledge of human nature we seem hardly able to attain to without passing through the strengthening hibernation of a new barbarism.
The soul yearns to fly home on the wings of love to the world of ideas. It longs to be freed from the chains of the body.
Do not waste your time on Social Questions. What is the matter with the poor is Poverty; what is the matter with the rich is Uselessness.
Whether you like it or not, whether you know it or not, secretly all nature seeks God and works toward [God].
I was thinking, that when my time comes, I should be sorry if the only plea I had to offer was that of justice. Because it might mean that only justice would be meted out to me.