“A humanist has four leading characteristics — curiosity, a free mind, belief in good taste, and belief in the human race.”

— E. M. Forster, Two Cheers for Democracy, 1951, George and Gide

About E. M. Forster

1879 – 1970

English novelist, author of "A Room with a View" and "A Passage to India".

“Either life entails courage, or it ceases to be life.”

“Happiness in the ordinary sense is not what one needs in life, though one is right to aim at it.”

“Poetry is a spirit; and they that would worship it must worship in spirit and in truth.”

“It would be thought a hard Government that should tax its People one-tenth Part of their Time, to be employed in its Service.”

“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”

“I used to sit, think, think, thinking, till I felt as lonesome as a kitten in a wash-house copper with the lid on.”

“Science is not the truth. Science is finding the truth. When science changes its opinion, it didn't lie to you.”

“It isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it.”

“Ambition raises a secret tumult in the soul, it inflames the mind, and puts it into a violent hurry of thought.”