E.M. Forster, A Room With a View

Saturday, 16 Apr 2022

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Quote 1:

The armour of falsehood is subtly wrought out of darkness, and hides a man not only from others, but from his own soul.”

Quote 2:

‘Yes, for we fight for more than Love or Pleasure: there is Truth. Truth counts, Truth does count.’

Quote 3:

…by the side of the everlasting Why there is a Yes – a transitory Yes if you like, but a Yes.

Quote 4:

“Life,” wrote a friend of mine, “is a public performance on the violin, in which you must learn the instrument as you go along.”

Quote 5:

There is much that is immortal in this medieval lady. The dragons have gone, and so have the knights, but she still lingers in our midst. She reigned in many an early Victorian castle, and was queen of much early Victorian song. It is sweet to protect her in the intervals of business, sweet to pay her honour when she has cooked our dinner well. But alas! The creature grows degenerate. In her heart also there are springing up strange desires. She too is enamoured of heavy winds, and vast panoramas, and green expanses of sea. She has marked the kingdom of this world, how full it is of wealth, and beauty, and war – a radiant crust, built around the central fires, spinning towards the receding heavens. Men, declaring that she inspires them to it, move joyfully over the surface, having the most delightful meetings with other men, happy, not because they are masculine, but because they are alive. Before the show breaks up she would like to drop the august title of the Eternal Woman, and go there as her transitory self.

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