“What puzzles me most is your criticism that he showed 'no sense of engagement.”

—  E.M. Forster

I haven't met the expression before, and feel bound to comment on its totalitarian tang. Engagement not with the truth as the speaker apprehends it, but with the alleged opinion of the majority of listeners.
Letter 400, to John Morris, 12 January 1953
Selected Letters (1983-1985)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "What puzzles me most is your criticism that he showed 'no sense of engagement." by E.M. Forster?
E.M. Forster photo
E.M. Forster 200
English novelist 1879–1970

Related quotes

E.M. Forster photo

“What puzzles me most is your criticism that he showed 'no sense of engagement'. I haven't met the expression before, and feel bound to comment on its totalitarian tang. Engagement not with the truth as the speaker apprehends it, but with the alleged opinion of the majority of listeners.”

E.M. Forster (1879–1970) English novelist

Letter 400, to John Morris, 12 January 1953
Selected Letters (1983-1985)

Margaret Cho photo

“I stood in front of a hundred and one critics at a critic's convention and a critic asked me, "Miss Cho, isn't it true that your management asked you to lose weight to play the part of yourself in your own TV show?" Gail [the producer] grabbed the mike from me and said, "There is no truth in that whatsoever."”

Margaret Cho (1968) American stand-up comedian

I...was so...hungry.
From Her Tours and CDs, I'm The One That I Want Tour

Ludwig Wittgenstein photo

“You must always be puzzled by mental illness. The thing I would dread most, if I became mentally ill, would be your adopting a common sense attitude; that you could take it for granted that I was deluded.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher

Conversation of 1947 or 1948
Personal Recollections (1981)

Robert Rauschenberg photo

“Albers [on Black Mountain College ] was a beautiful teacher and an impossible person. He wasn't easy to talk to, and I found his criticism so excruciating and so devastating that I never asked for it. Years later, though, I'm still learning what he taught me, because what he taught me had to do with the entire visual world. He didn't teach you how to 'do art'. The focus was always on your personal sense of looking… I consider Albers the most important teacher I've ever had, and I'm sure that he considers me one of his poorest students.”

Robert Rauschenberg (1925–2008) American artist

Source: 1960's, The Bride and the Bachelors, (1962), p. 198

“The world's a puzzle; no need to make sense out of it." - Socrates”

Dan Millman (1946) American self help writer

Source: Way of the Peaceful Warrior: A Book That Changes Lives

“If you are engaged in doing good deeds and go on doing good acts, you will have good sleep, good appetite and bad thoughts will not cross your mind. Otherwise, you will always be criticizing others. In inaction, your minds will always be engaged in thinking critically of others. Karma – activity – is the only thing which can drive out all evils.”

Haidakhan Babaji teacher in northern India

Karma yoga
Source: The Teachings of Babaji, 17 November 1983.

Steven Pressfield photo

“The professional learns to recognize envy-driven criticism and to take it for what it is: the supreme compliment. The critic hates most that which he would have done himself if he had had the guts.”

Steven Pressfield (1943) United States Marine

Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

Idries Shah photo

“Good. Show me a man who thinks that he knows what 'good' is, and I will probably be able to show you a horror of a person. Show me a person who really knows what 'good' is, and I will show you that he almost never uses the word.”

Idries Shah book Caravan of Dreams

Source: Caravan of Dreams

“Running became my way of solving this puzzle of what had happened to me. It was just me and the road.”

Jason P. Lester (1974) American triathlete and distance runner

Running on Faith: the Principles, Passion and Pursuit of a Winning Life (2010); as quoted in "First Read: Jason Lester’s Running on Faith" https://web.archive.org/web/20140726214009/http://lavamagazine.com/first-read-jason-lesters-running-on-faith/?cbg_tz=-60, LAVA Magazine (November 2, 2010).

Related topics