Personal relations are the important thing for ever and ever, and not this outer life of telegrams and anger.
E. M. ForsterRead
But this time I'm not to blame; I want you to believe that. I simply slipped into those violets. No, I want to be really truthful. I am a little to blame. The sky, you know, was gold, and the ground all blue, and for a moment he looked like some one in a book.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The speaker reflects on their role in a situation, acknowledging their faults while also attributing part of the circumstance to external factors.
In this quote, E. M. Forster delves into the complexity of human emotions and relationships. The speaker grapples with accountability, recognizing their own minor culpability while also suggesting that the environment and circumstances played a significant role in their actions. This realization opens a dialogue about the interplay between personal responsibility and the impact of external influences on our decisions and perceptions.
Themes
AccountabilityResponsibilityEmotionsCircumstancesSelf-Reflection
In practice
Example use cases
During a seminar on personal growth, one could use this quote to illustrate the importance of self-awareness in decision-making.
More from E. M. Forster
All quotes →A poem is true if it hangs together. Information points to something else. A poem points to nothing but itself.
E. M. ForsterRead
One must be fond of people and trust them if one is not to make a mess of life.
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.
E. M. ForsterRead
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.
E. M. ForsterRead
One person with passion is better than forty people merely interested.
E. M. ForsterRead
Similar quotes
Life is not so short but that there is always time enough for courtesy.
Ralph Waldo EmersonRead
Confine yourself to observing and you always miss the point of your life. The object can be stated this way: Live the best life you can. Life is a game whose rules you learn if you leap into it and play it to the hilt. Otherwise, you are caught off balance, continually surprised by the shifting play. Non-players often whine and complain that luck always passes them by. They refuse to see that they can create some of their own luck. Darwi Odrade - Chapterhouse: Dune
Frank HerbertRead
Being on the tightrope is living; everything else is waiting.
Karl WallendaRead
Our time here is magic! It's the only space you have to realize whatever it is that is beautiful, whatever is true, whatever is great, whatever is potential, whatever is rare, whatever is unique, in. It's the only space.
Ben OkriRead
Life was about spending time together , about having the time to walk together holding hands, talking quietly as the sun go down. It wasn't glamorous, but it was, in many ways, the best that life has to offer. Wasn't that how the old saying went? Who, on their deathbed, ever said they wished they had worked harder? Or spent less time enjoying a quiet afternoon? Or spent less time with their family?
Nicholas SparksRead
So since I'm still here livin', I guess I will live on. I could've died for love-- But for livin' I was born.
Langston HughesRead