# Maurice

- Author: [E. M. Forster](https://www.leafyquotes.com/e-m-forster.md)
- Quotes: 59
- Book page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/e-m-forster/maurice

## Quotes

> After all, is not a real Hell better than a manufactured Heaven?

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/after-all-is-not.md)

> "I was yours once till death if you'd cared to keep me, but I'm someone else's now - I can't hang about whining for ever- and he's mine in a way that shocks you, but why don't you stop being shocked, and attend to your own happiness?"

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/i-was-yours.md)

> He had always liked his friend's laugh, and at such a moment the soft rumble of it reassured him; it suggested happiness and security.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/he-had-always.md)

> He had acted wrongly, and was still being punished- but wrongly because he had tried to get the best of both worlds.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/he-had-acted.md)

> They were his last words, because Maurice had disappeared thereabouts, leaving no trace of his presense except a little pile of the petals of the evening primrose, which mourned from the ground like an expiring fire.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/they-were-his.md)

> He had begun rough and gay and somehow factitious, then his voice had died away into sadness as though truth had risen to the surface of the water and was unbearable.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/he-had-begun.md)

> "You care for me a little bit, I do think," he admitted, "but I can't hang all my life on a little bit. You don't. You hang yours on Anne. You don't worry whether your relation with her is platonic or not, you only know it's big enough to hang a life on."

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/you-care-for.md)

> Love was an emotion through which you occasionally enjoyed yourself. It could not do things.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/love-was-an-emotion.md)

> He did not realize that this was the end, without twilight or compromise, that he should never cross Maurice's track again, nor speak to those who had seen him.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/he-did-not.md)

> Lust is negligible when absent.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/lust-is-negligible.md)

> You could call your cousin a shit if you liked, but not a eunuch. Rotten style!

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/you-could-call.md)

> When love flies it is remembered not as love but as something else. Blessed are the uneducated, who forget it entirely, and are never conscious of folly or pruriency in the past, of long aimless conversations.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/when-love-flies.md)

> "Nothing's the same for anyone. That's why life's this Hell, if you do a thing you're damned, and if you don't you're damned-"

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/nothings-the-same.md)

> He knew what it was, it reminded him of nothing horrible. But he was afraid.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/he-knew-what.md)

> He had accomplished an act of creation, and as he did so Death turned her head away.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/he-had-accomplished.md)

> Science is better than sympathy, if only it is science.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/science-is-better.md)

> What was the use of money-grubbing, eating, and playing games? That was all he did or had ever done.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/what-was-the.md)

> What a solid young citizen he looked- quiet, honourable, prosperous without vulgarity. On such does England rely. Was it conceivable that on Sunday last he had nearly assaulted a boy?

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/what-a-solid.md)

> Dr. Barry went on lecturing him, and under the cover of a friendly manner said much that gave pain.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/dr-barry-went.md)

> A refined nature would have behaved better and perhaps have suffered less.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/a-refined-nature.md)

> Each human being seemed new, and terrified him: he spoke to a race whose nature and numbers were unknown, and whose very food tasted poisonous.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/each-human-being.md)

> The ethereal past had blinded him, and the highest happiness he could dream was a return to it.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/the-ethereal-past.md)

> It had not occurred to him before that neither he nor his friend would leave life behind him.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/it-had-not.md)

> Maurice did not interrupt: it was all charming nonesense to him.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/maurice-did-not.md)

> Alive, but slightly absurd; they misunderstood him so utterly: they exposed their weakness when they thought themselves most acute. He could not help smiling.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/alive-but-slightly.md)

> When they sat it was nearly always in the same position- Maurice in a chair, and Durham at his feet, learning against him. In the world of their friends this attracted no notice. Maurice would stroke Durham's hair.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/when-they-sat.md)

> "The worst thing I could do for you is to discuss it."

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/the-worst-thing.md)

> He had lost the precocious clearness of the child which transfigures and explains the universe, offering answers of miraculous insight and beauty.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/he-had-lost.md)

> Who was George? Nobody- just a common servant. Mother and Ada and Kitty were far more important. But he was too little to argue this. He did not even know that when he yielded to this sorrow he overcame the spectral and fell asleep.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/who-was-george.md)

> He had been such a man all the evening, but the old feeling came over him as soon as his mother had kissed him good night.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/he-had-been.md)

> He could control the body; it was the tainted soul that mocked his prayers.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/he-could-control.md)

> He stood still in the darkness instead of groping about in it, as if this was the end for which body and soul had been so painfully prepared.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/he-stood-still.md)

> Maurice stood over him, black-browed, and saw in this disgusting and dishonourable old age his own.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/maurice-stood-over.md)

> "Someone to last your whole life and you his. I suppose such a thing can't really happen outside sleep."

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/someone-to-last.md)

> Durham couldn't do without him, and would be found at all hours curled up in his room and spoiling to argue.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/durham-couldnt-do-without.md)

> "I should have gone through life half awake if you'd had the decency to leave me alone."

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/i-should-have.md)

> He loved men and always had loved them. He longed to embrace them and mingle his being with theirs. Now that the man who returned his love had been lost, he admitted this.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/he-loved-men.md)

> "For love to end where it begins is far more beautiful, and Nature knows it."

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/for-love-to-end.md)

> The mist would lower again, he felt sure, and with an unhappy sigh, he pulled Durham's head against his knee, as though it was a talisman for clear living.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/the-mist-would.md)

> The man was bourgeois, unfinished and stupid- the worst of confidants.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/the-man-was.md)

> To anyone he would have seemed beautiful, and to Maurice who reached him by two paths he became the World's desire.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/to-anyone-he-would.md)

> The incestuous jealousy, the mortification, the rage at his past obtuseness- these might pass, and having done much harm they did pass.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/the-incestuous-jealousy.md)

> Maurice's secret life can be understood now; it was part brutal, part ideal, like his dreams.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/maurices-secret-life.md)

> They kissed, scarcely wishing it.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/they-kissed-scarcely.md)

> "Oh, you'll get out. It's only the Hell of Disgust. You've never done anything to be ashamed of, so you don't know what's really Hell."

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/oh-youll-get.md)

> I am perfectly aware I am only a servant that never presume on your loving kindness to take liberties or in any other way.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/i-am-perfectly.md)

> He didn't so much as have hopes, for hope distracts, and he had a great deal to see to.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/he-didnt-so-much.md)

> Then darkness rolled up again, the darkness that is primeval but not eternal, and yields to its own painful dawn.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/then-darkness-rolled.md)

> He had pretended to himself that he had enjoyed it, and thus increased his misery.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/he-had-pretended.md)

> All that came out of the chaos were the two feelings of beauty and tenderness that he had first felt in a dream. They grew yearly, flourishing like plants that are all leaves and show no sign of flower.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/all-that-came.md)

> No argument ever touched her, because she was tenderness, who reconciles present with past.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/no-argument-ever.md)

> No tradition overawed the boys. No convention settled what was poetic, what absurd. They were concerned with a passion that few English minds have admitted, and so created untrammled. Something of exquisite beauty arose in the mind of each at last, something unforgettable and eternal, but built of the humblest scraps of speech and from the simplest emotions.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/no-tradition-overawed.md)

> Everyone and everything had suddenly harmonized. Was this the world?

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/everyone-and-everything.md)

> Having been bullied as a new boy, he bullied others when they seemed unhappy or weak, not because he was cruel but because it was the proper thing to do.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/having-been-bullied.md)

> He dared not to be kind- it was not the thing- still less to express his admiration in words. And the adored one would shake him off before long, and reduce him to sulks.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/he-dared-not.md)

> If obliged to ask himself, "What's all this?" he would have replied, "Durham is another of those boys in whom I was interested at school," but he was obliged to ask nothing, and merely went ahead with his mouth and his mind shut.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/if-obliged-to-ask.md)

> They slept separate at first, as if proximity harassed them, but towards morning a movement began, and they woke deep in each other's arms.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/they-slept-separate.md)

> "I'm an unspeakable of the Oscar Wilde sort."

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/im-an-unspeakable.md)

> Puberty was there, but not intelligence, and manhood was stealing on him, as it always must, in a trance.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/puberty-was-there.md)