Personal relations are the important thing for ever and ever, and not this outer life of telegrams and anger.
E. M. ForsterRead
Only people who have been allowed to practise freedom can have the grown-up look in their eyes.
Interpretation
True maturity and understanding of life come from experiencing freedom.
E. M. Forster's quote suggests that the experiences of freedom are crucial for personal growth and maturity. Those who have not experienced this freedom may lack the depth and understanding that comes with it, which is often reflected in their demeanor and perspective on life.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about personal development during a leadership seminar.
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.
When it was suggested that I write a memoir I said, 'I'm not old enough. I'm not distinguished enough.' But I went home and sat down to write, and the material for the book just came flooding into my hands.
Never limit yourself because of others' limited imagination; never limit others because of your own limited imagination.
If we don't plant the right things, we will reap the wrong things. It goes without saying. And you don't have to be, you know, a brilliant biochemist and you don't have to have an IQ of 150. Just common sense tells you to be kind, ninny, fool. Be kind.
There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves we feel no one else has a right to blame us.
I met Tiger Woods when he was younger. He's amazing - obviously technically, but his mental approach, too. He's really something.
A man must be able to cut a knot, for everything cannot be untied; he must know how to disengage what is essential from the detail in which it is enwrapped, for everything cannot be equally considered; in a word, he must be able to simplify his duties, his business and his life.
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