Personal relations are the important thing for ever and ever, and not this outer life of telegrams and anger.
E. M. ForsterRead
Their quarrel was no more surprising than are most quarrels — inevitable at the time, incredible afterwards.
Interpretation
Quarrels often seem unavoidable in the moment, but may later appear unnecessary or foolish.
E. M. Forster's quote reflects on the nature of disagreements, suggesting that conflicts among individuals often arise naturally due to the circumstances at hand. In retrospect, however, these disputes can seem unreasonable and surprising, indicating a disconnect between the emotional intensity of the moment and the clarity that time provides.
In practice
In a speech about conflict resolution, one might use this quote to highlight the importance of reflection after arguments.
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.
Words don't hurt you." Which is one of the hugest criminal lies perpetrated by adults against children in this world. Because words hurt more than any physical pain.
I am interested in people who swim in the deep end. I want to have conversations about real things with people who have experienced real things. I'm tired of talking about movies and gossiping about friends. Life is crunchy and complicated and all the more delicious.
I sometimes think that the reason I was mistaken for a Rwandan is because other countries don't expect that an American diplomat is black.
How can a Man respect his Wife when he has a contemptible Opinion of her and her Sex?
The way I go about it is that we should all be inviting people into our lives who don't look like us, speak like us and don't come from where we come from.
Society does not need more children; but it does need more loved children. Quite literally, we cannot afford unloved children - but we pay heavily for them every day. There should not be the slightest communal concern when a woman elects to destroy the life of her thousandth-of-an-ounce embryo. But all society should rise up in alarm when it hears that a baby that is not wanted is about to be born.
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