Personal relations are the important thing for ever and ever, and not this outer life of telegrams and anger.
E. M. ForsterRead
Life's very difficult and full of surprises. At all events, I've got as far as that. To be humble and kind, to go straight ahead, to love people rather than pity them, to remember the submerged - well, one can't do all these things at once, worse luck, because they're so contradictory. It's then that proportion comes in - to live by proportion. Don't begin with proportion. Only prigs do that. Let proportion come in as a last resource, when the better things have failed.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Life is challenging and unpredictable, and our responses to it should emphasize kindness and humility rather than pity.
E. M. Forster's quote highlights the complexities of life, stressing that while one should aspire to kindness, love, and a sense of balance, these ideals can often seem contradictory. He suggests that instead of starting with rigid principles like proportion, one should engage with life as it comes and only turn to proportion as a last resort when navigating these challenges becomes overwhelming.
Themes
LifeHumilityKindnessProportionLoveChallenges
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a motivational speech about overcoming life's difficulties.
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.
E. M. ForsterRead
One must be fond of people and trust them if one is not to make a mess of life.
E. M. ForsterRead
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. ForsterRead
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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