Sons and Lovers | Quotes

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1.
Each forgot everything save the hatred of the other.

Narrator, Part 1, Chapter 1

Mr. and Mrs. Morel fight bitterly when he comes home drunk after work. Their relationship
swings between violent hatred and affection, just as Paul's relationship with Miriam swings
between love and hate later in the novel.
2.
There was a feeling of misery over all the house.

Narrator, Part 1, Chapter 2

After a particularly brutal fight in which Mr. Morel hurls a drawer at his wife, misery fills the
house. As an outlet for her desperation Mrs. Morel transfers all the lost affection for her
husband onto her sons.
3.
His soul seemed always attentive to her.

Narrator, Part 1, Chapter 4

Even from a young age Paul devotes himself to his mother, and their bond is clear. As Paul
matures, his love for his mother morphs from admiration to romantic affection.
4.
She loved him passionately.

Narrator, Part 1, Chapter 4

Mrs. Morel would do anything for William, and she feels inordinately jealous of his
relationships with other young women. She worries the girls will distract him or take him
away from her.
5.
Sleep is still most perfect ... when it is shared with a beloved.

Narrator, Part 1, Chapter 4

The narrator describes Paul's love for sleeping next to his mother when ill. He finds it warm
and secure—two characteristics he never finds with his lovers. At the end of the novel Paul
contemplates suicide after his mother's death so he can return to this feeling of security.
6.
[They felt] the excitement of lovers having an adventure together.
Narrator, Part 1, Chapter 5
Paul takes his mother with him to Nottingham for his job interview. They treat the trip as a
mini vacation, acting more like lovers than mother and son. This highlights the strongly
presented oedipal theme of their relationship.
7.
He hated her, for she seemed in some way to make him despise himself.

Narrator, Part 2, Chapter 7

Paul feels desperate to start a physical relationship with Miriam, but she's too timid. Although
they share a deep emotional bond, Miriam won't give herself fully to Paul, which makes him
feel embarrassed of his sexual desires.
8.
Won't you really go any farther?

Paul Morel, Part 2, Chapter 7

Paul tries to convince Miriam to have sex with him while he's pushing her on a swing. He's
directly asking whether he can push her higher on the swing, but he is symbolically
criticizing her for being so chaste.
9.
I talk to her, but I want to come home to you.

Paul Morel, Part 2, Chapter 8

Mrs. Morel begs Paul not to enter a romance with Miriam because she's terrified he will leave
her. Paul insists he loves his mother more than anyone, and they share a "long, fervent kiss,"
which further strengthens the novel's oedipal theme.
10.
I don't think I love you as a man ought to love his wife.

Paul Morel, Part 2, Chapter 9

Paul breaks things off with Miriam in part because his mother doesn't approve of her. Paul
claims he doesn't love her like a wife, but in reality the only woman he's ever loved that way
is his mother.
11.
She lay as if she had given herself up to sacrifice.

Narrator, Part 2, Chapter 11

In a last-ditch effort to keep Paul, Miriam agrees to have sex with him. She is "horrified" by
the encounter but believes she is sacrificing her virginity for the greater good: marriage.
12.
Love should give a sense of freedom, not of prison.
Paul Morel, Part 2, Chapter 13
Paul tries to convince Clara to enter a sexual relationship with him despite the fact that she's
already married. He claims they belong together because they were both stifled by their
previous relationships, he with Miriam and her with Baxter Dawes.
13.
He could not be free to go forward with his own life, really love another woman.

Narrator, Part 2, Chapter 13

Paul realizes that his relationship with his mother is suffocating him. He will never be able to
love another woman as long as she is alive.
14.
She's got such a will, it seems as if she would never go—never!

Paul Morel, Part 2, Chapter 14

Now that Paul realizes that his mother is the cause for his romantic unhappiness, part of him
wishes her to die so he can be free from the bondage of her love, no matter how much it pains
him.
15.
She was the only thing that held him up, himself, amid all this.

Narrator, Part 2, Chapter 15

After Mrs. Morel dies, Paul is filled with emotion and reflection of their relationship. He
knows his mother's love was holding him back, but he now feels desperately alone without
her and even considers suicide so they can be reunited.

A Passage to India | Quotes

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1.
They all become exactly the same ... I give any Englishman two years.

Hamidullah, Part 1, Chapter 2

Hamidullah, Mahmoud Ali, and Aziz are discussing a phenomenon they have observed in the
English colonial administrators who come to India: the administrators behave decently when
they arrive and then become rude and callous to Indians after they have settled into their
official roles. Colonialism frames their relationship with Indians as one of superiors and
inferiors.
2.
You are an Oriental.

Aziz, Part 1, Chapter 2

After Aziz tells Mrs. Moore she understands him and knows what others feel, Mrs. Moore
says she doesn't understand people; she only knows whether she likes or dislikes people. In
other words she relies on instinct and intuition rather than analysis. To Aziz's mind this
makes Mrs. Moore an "Oriental," unlike, say, Adela, who is—to Aziz's mind—a typical
English person, relying heavily on rational thought.

3.
I want to see the real India.

Adela, Part 1, Chapter 3

Adela tells Mrs. Moore she is uninterested in the typical superficial sightseeing tour, which
will probably involve an elephant ride. True to her last name, Quested, Adela instead sets off
on a quest to interact with Indians, which sets the novel's plot in motion.

4.
We're not out here for the purpose of behaving pleasantly!

Ronny, Part 1, Chapter 5

When Mrs. Moore criticizes the way the English treat the Indians, her son replies as a
colonist would. Ronny has the mindset of an official with a job to do, and he doesn't see any
need to interact with the Indians socially.

5.
Fielding ... had dulled his craving for verbal truth and cared chiefly for truth of mood.

Narrator, Part 1, Chapter 7

After Aziz makes a statement Fielding knows is inaccurate, Fielding remains mum. Unlike
other English people, he understands and acknowledges the feeling behind what Aziz is
saying and isn't out to correct minor mistakes. This shows his growing connection to the
people of India, who generally value mood and intention far more than the literal-minded
English do.
6.
No one can ever realize how much kindness we Indians need.

Aziz, Part 1, Chapter 11

Aziz makes this comment after Fielding demonstrates an understanding of and respect for
Aziz's attitude toward purdah. Aziz is speaking not only of his appreciation for Fielding's
empathy and friendship but also of relations between England and India; England's empty
gestures cannot take the place of genuine feelings or mask its attitude of superiority and
racism toward India.

7.
Nothing embraces the whole of India, nothing, nothing.

Aziz, Part 2, Chapter 14

Aziz is discussing the Mogul emperor Akbar, who created a religion intended to encompass
the whole country. This feat proved impossible because there is no one India. This idea recurs
throughout the book; one cannot simply "see India" because there are a hundred Indias.

8.
He was still after facts, though the herd had decided on emotion.

Narrator, Part 2, Chapter 17

When Turton tells Fielding about Adela's assault accusation against Aziz, he expects Fielding
to rally around the banner of race; after all, as Turton says, "an English girl, fresh from
England" has been assaulted. Turton's attitude reflects the racism of many English colonists
but stands in contrast to the English tendency to take a fact-driven, objective view of events.
Fielding is determined to look for facts, however, especially as his friend Aziz's reputation is
at stake.

9.
Love in a church, love in a cave, as if there is the least difference.

Mrs. Moore, Part 2, Chapter 22

Mrs. Moore has been deeply affected by her trip to the Marabar Caves, where every sound is
reduced to a single echo; it revealed to her the meaninglessness behind all human action.
Now she sees no difference between marriage and the alleged sexual assault in the cave. So
many aspects of life that used to seem significant now seem indistinguishable to her.

10.
Where there is officialism, every human relationship suffers.

Narrator, Part 2, Chapter 24

Just before Adela's trial, the narrator notes the English support her—after all, she is one of
them, and Aziz is an Indian—but they have no idea what is going on in her mind. Because he
is a British official, even Ronny has only the vaguest notion of how she feels. The English all
speak of her, and of the trial, as if from a distance; Adela is "the accused," not an individual
with individual feelings.

11.
While relieving the Oriental mind, she had chilled it.

Narrator, Part 2, Chapter 26

After Adela's trial, Fielding and Hamidullah discuss where she should go. Fielding expresses
sympathy and concern for her, but Hamidullah does not. As the narrator notes, the Indians
were relieved when she withdrew her charge against Aziz; however, they did not warm
toward her because she showed no emotions and thus evoked no emotions.

12.
We exist not in ourselves, but in terms of each others' minds.

Narrator, Part 2, Chapter 26

Fielding comes to this realization—one for which "logic had no support"—after learning
Mrs. Moore has died and hearing Hamidullah speak callously about her death. Hamidullah
cares nothing about Mrs. Moore's death—she barely existed in his mind—and Fielding hardly
knew her either, though he is far more sensitive to her fate. His thought about existing "in
terms of each others' minds" reflects Forster's belief in the power of subjective reality.

13.
Your emotions never seem in proportion to their objects, Aziz.

Fielding, Part 2, Chapter 27

Fielding says this to Aziz when he expresses great affection for Mrs. Moore, but has no
generosity or pity for Adela, who bravely alienated herself from her people for the sake of
telling the truth and setting him free. Fielding doesn't quite understand what is behind Aziz's
emotions at times.

14.
Were there worlds beyond which they could never touch? ... Perhaps life is a mystery.

Narrator, Part 2, Chapter 29

Here the narrator reflects on an important theme in the novel: the limits of English rationality.
Adela and Fielding cannot understand how Mrs. Moore could have known what happened in
the cave. Despite her English background Mrs. Moore seemed to have a natural openness to
and connection with India's mystical side; Adela and Fielding remain staunchly rational and
therefore foreign to India.

15.
Drive every blasted Englishman into the sea, and then ... you and I shall be friends.

Aziz, Part 3, Chapter 37

Aziz makes this comment to Fielding while they ride through the Mau forest at the end of the
novel. His remark summarizes colonialism's effect on human relationships. An Indian and an
Englishman cannot truly be friends until both nations are independent and free.