Personal relations are the important thing for ever and ever, and not this outer life of telegrams and anger.
E. M. ForsterRead
So, two cheers for Democracy: one because it admits variety and two because it permits criticism.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Democracy is celebrated for both its diversity and its allowance for critical discussion.
E. M. Forster's quote highlights two fundamental aspects of democracy: its ability to embrace a variety of perspectives and its openness to criticism. By admitting differing opinions and allowing for dissent, democracy not only fosters a rich tapestry of ideas but also strengthens itself by encouraging dialogue and accountability, essential for its health and growth.
Themes
DemocracyVarietyCriticismFreedomAccountability
In practice
Example use cases
During a political debate, one might reference this quote to emphasize the importance of diverse opinions in democratic discourse.
More from E. M. Forster
All quotes βA poem is true if it hangs together. Information points to something else. A poem points to nothing but itself.
E. M. ForsterRead
One must be fond of people and trust them if one is not to make a mess of life.
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.
E. M. ForsterRead
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.
E. M. ForsterRead
One person with passion is better than forty people merely interested.
E. M. ForsterRead
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Everything tends to make us believe that there exists a certain point of the mind at which life and death, the real and the imagined, past and future, the communicable and the incommunicable, high and low, cease to be perceived as contradictions.
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You, yesterday, did the usual things, just as any day, You don't know if it's worth remembering. You would prefer to remember, there lying in the half-darkness of the bedroom, not what has happened already but what is going to happen. In your half-darkness your eyes would prefer to look ahead, not behind, and they do not know how to foresee the past.
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