Personal relations are the important thing for ever and ever, and not this outer life of telegrams and anger.
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.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the unique character of Oxford as a place that fosters a deep love for its environment and culture rather than focusing solely on interpersonal relationships.
E. M. Forster's quote reflects on the distinct and profound nature of the Oxford experience, suggesting that the university is more than just a place for youthful camaraderie. Instead, it encourages an emotional attachment to its rich heritage and intellectual wealth, proposing that the love for the institution itself may take precedence over the love between individuals within it.
In practice
During a speech at the university alumni gathering.
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.
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.
Don't be mysterious; there isn't the time.
Everyone has their own way of learning.
One of the most important things that teachers teach students is you, you can work harder. You are mentally tougher than you think.
Writing has been an important exercise to clarify what I believe, what I see, what I care about, what my deepest values are. The process of converting a jumble of thoughts into coherent sentences makes you ask tougher questions.
The student who uses home made apparatus, which is always going wrong, often learns more than one who has the use of carefully adjusted instruments, to which he is apt to trust and which he dares not take to pieces.
I'm a professor - there should be some lessons learned - and how you can use the stuff you hear today to enable your dreams or enable the dreams of others. And as you get older you may find that enabling-the-dreams-of-others thing is even more fun.
I myself owe everything to French books. They developed in my soul the sentiments of humanity which had been stifled by eight years of fanatical and servile education.
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