Personal relations are the important thing for ever and ever, and not this outer life of telegrams and anger.
E. M. ForsterRead
Let us think of people as starting life with an experience they forget and ending it with one which they anticipate but cannot understand.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Life is a journey where we forget our beginnings and face an uncertain end.
E. M. Forster's quote reflects on the human experience as a journey marked by the paradox of forgetting our origins while being unable to comprehend our conclusions. It suggests that while we start life with a wealth of experiences that fade away from memory, we inevitably approach the end with anticipations that remain elusive and unfathomable, highlighting the transient and mysterious nature of existence.
Themes
LifeExperienceMemoryAnticipationExistence
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a graduation speech to demonstrate the journey of life.
More from E. M. Forster
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One must be fond of people and trust them if one is not to make a mess of life.
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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.
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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.
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One person with passion is better than forty people merely interested.
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