Personal relations are the important thing for ever and ever, and not this outer life of telegrams and anger.
E. M. ForsterRead
They cared for no one, they were outside humanity, and death, had it come, would only have continued their pursuit of a retreating horizon.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the detachment from human connection and the relentless pursuit of unattainable goals.
In this quote, E. M. Forster explores the idea of individuals who are so consumed by their ambitions and desires that they become disconnected from humanity itself. The metaphor of a 'retreating horizon' symbolizes goals that are perpetually just out of reach, suggesting that this relentless pursuit leads to a life devoid of meaningful relationships and ultimately makes death an indifferent end rather than a culmination of human experience.
In practice
In a discussion about the dangers of ambition, this quote can emphasize the importance of human connections.
Personal relations are the important thing for ever and ever, and not this outer life of telegrams and anger.
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.
Even on the cross He did not hide Himself from sight; rather, He made all creation witness to the presence of its Maker.
The universal and lasting establishment of peace constitutes not merely a part, but the whole final purpose and end of the science of right as viewed within the limits of reason.
If poisonous minerals, and if that tree, Whose fruit threw death on else immortal us, If lecherous goats, if serpents envious Cannot be damned; alas; why should I be?
The Way is eternal. Until your last day, you are free from peril.
So for a good old-gentlemanly vice, I think I must take up with avarice.
Sometimes I sit down to dinner with people and I realize there is a massive military machine surrounding us, trying to kill the people I'm having dinner with.
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