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.
Seeking means: to have a goal; but finding means: to be free, to be receptive, to have no goal. You, O worthy one, are perhaps indeed a seeker, for in striving towards your goal, you do not see many things that are under your nose.
It's a funny thing, the less people have to live for, the less nerve they have to risk losing nothing.
What emotions would we experience if we weren't working ourselves to death? What wishes drive us? What fantasies hitch themselves to our continual busyness? Only when we step away from our frenzy can we know.
Lasting fulfillment is attained only through gaining insight into the core of our human nature, unleashing the power to understand, appreciate, and enjoy our lives at the deepest level.
When this No-Mind has been well developed, the mind does not stop with one thing nor does it lack any one thing. It appears appropriately when facing a time of need.
For secrets are edged tools, And must be kept from children and from fools.
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