Personal relations are the important thing for ever and ever, and not this outer life of telegrams and anger.
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.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the unique character of Oxford as a place that fosters a deep love for its environment and culture rather than focusing solely on interpersonal relationships.
E. M. Forster's quote reflects on the distinct and profound nature of the Oxford experience, suggesting that the university is more than just a place for youthful camaraderie. Instead, it encourages an emotional attachment to its rich heritage and intellectual wealth, proposing that the love for the institution itself may take precedence over the love between individuals within it.
In practice
During a speech at the university alumni gathering.
Personal relations are the important thing for ever and ever, and not this outer life of telegrams and anger.
A poem is true if it hangs together. Information points to something else. A poem points to nothing but itself.
One must be fond of people and trust them if one is not to make a mess of life.
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.
One person with passion is better than forty people merely interested.
Don't be mysterious; there isn't the time.
I loved teaching, but every day that I went to work, I carried the worry that I was hurting my kids because I wasn't at home with them.
If you are teaching Muslim sixth formers in a school, and you tell them they can't have their God and Darwin, there is a risk they will choose their God and be lost to science.
Every time you make a rule you take away a choice, and choice, with all of its illuminating repercussions, is the fuel for learning.
I had always looked down on sociology as this arriviste discipline. It didn't have the noble history of English and history as a subject. But once I had a little exposure to it, I said, 'Hey, here's the key. Here's the key to understanding life and all its forms.'
I have read my books by many lights, hoarding their beauty, their wit or wisdom against the dark days when I would have no book, nor a place to read. I have known hunger of the belly kind many times over, but I have known a worse hunger: the need to know and to learn.
A cookbook must have recipes, but it shouldn't be a blueprint. It should be more inspirational; it should be a guide.
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