A Room with a View

by E.M. Forster

And think how he has been brought up—free from all the superstition and ignorance that lead men to hate one another in the name of God.

The kingdom of music is not the kingdom of this world; it will accept those whom breeding and intellect and culture have alike rejected.

“If Miss Honeychurch ever takes to live as she plays, it will be very exciting—both for us and for her.”

She had complained of dullness, and lo! One man was stabbed, and another held her in his arms.

A rebel she was, but not of the kind he understood—a rebel who desired, not a wider dwelling-room, but equality beside the man she loved. For Italy was offering her the most priceless of all possessions—her own soul.

Up on the heights, battalions of black pines witnessed the change, themselves unchangeable.

The secret, big or little, was guarded. Only three English people knew of it in the world.

The scales fell from Lucy’s eyes. How had she stood Cecil for a moment? He was absolutely intolerable, and the same evening she broke off her engagement.

If a girl breaks off her engagement, every one says: ‘Oh, she had some one else in her mind; she hopes to get some one else.’ It’s disgusting, brutal! As if a girl can’t break it off for the sake of freedom.”

“Don’t trust me, Miss Honeychurch. Though life is very glorious, it is difficult.”

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

Though you fly to Greece, and never see him again, or forget his very name, George will work in your thoughts till you die. It isn’t possible to love and to part. You will wish that it was. You can transmute love, ignore it, muddle it, but you can never pull it out of you. I know by experience that the poets are right: love is eternal.”

When I think what life is, and how seldom love is answered by love—Marry him; it is one of the moments for which the world was made.”