Personal relations are the important thing for ever and ever, and not this outer life of telegrams and anger.
E. M. ForsterRead
Most of life is so dull that there is nothing to be said about it, and the books and talk that would describe it as interesting are obliged to exaggerate, in the hope of justifying their own existence.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Life often feels mundane and unremarkable, leading storytellers to embellish the ordinary to create interest.
E. M. Forster's quote highlights the inherent dullness of everyday life, suggesting that much of our existence lacks the excitement often portrayed in literature and conversation. This underscores a philosophical perspective on the human experience, where the mundane is transformed into dramatic narratives through exaggeration, reflecting our need to find meaning and vibrancy in an otherwise monotonous reality.
Themes
LifeDullnessExaggerationExistenceMundane
In practice
Example use cases
In a book club discussion about the nature of storytelling versus reality.
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.
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One must be fond of people and trust them if one is not to make a mess of life.
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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.
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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.
E. M. ForsterRead
One person with passion is better than forty people merely interested.
E. M. ForsterRead
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