Quote 1
“We know that we come from the winds, and that we shall return to them; that all life is perhaps a knot, a tangle, a blemish in the eternal smoothness. But why should this make us unhappy? Let us rather love one another, and work and rejoice” (2.45).
This unconventional and irreligious view, voiced by Mr. Emerson, poses a challenge to the stuffy Protestant ethic of the society Forster describes. In Mr. Emerson’s view of spirituality and the world, love between human beings is what matters more than anything else.
Quote 2
"Leave them alone," Mr. Emerson begged the chaplain, of whom he stood in no awe. "Do we find happiness so often that we should turn it off the box when it happens to sit there? To be driven by lovers—A king might envy us, and if we part them it's more like sacrilege than anything I know" (6.12).
Poor Mr. Emerson. He’s a real romantic in a crowd of cynics; he alone really believes wholeheartedly in the value of love and happiness above social propriety.
Quote 3
"I taught him," he quavered, "to trust in love. I said: 'When love comes, that is reality.' I said: 'Passion does not blind. No. Passion is sanity, and the woman you love, she is the only person you will ever really understand'" (19.27).
In this heartfelt declaration, Mr. Emerson totally overturns all of the social logic we’ve seen at work throughout the novel. His claim that “Passion is sanity” is the opposite of society’s stern opinion that social order is sanity. In Mr. E’s opinion (and in Forster’s… and in ours), love is more valuable and truthful than any barriers of class or expectation.
Quote 4
“It isn't possible to love and to part. You will wish that it was. You can transmute love, ignore it, muddle it, but you can never pull it out of you. I know by experience that the poets are right: love is eternal” (19.42).
Wise old Mr. Emerson speaks from experience here. Knowing what we do about his deceased wife, we can be sure that he still loves her, and always will. He’s imploring Lucy to admit to the fact that she loves George – because regardless of how much she denies it, she always will.
Quote 5
“[…] let yourself go. You are inclined to get muddled, if I may judge from last night. Let yourself go. Pull out from the depths those thoughts that you do not understand, and spread them out in the sunlight and know the meaning of them” (2.43).
Though Mr. Emerson doesn’t know Lucy well at all, he’s able to see right through her. He understands that she’s constantly struggling to put aside the thoughts and feelings she doesn’t understand, in order to maintain the image of a proper and polite young lady, even if that’s not who she really is.
Quote 6
“Man has to pick up the use of his functions as he goes along—especially the function of Love” (19.41).
Mr. Emerson rightly comments that we have to learn about life as we go; we’ve seen Lucy learn how to live throughout the novel, and here Forster suggests that the last thing she really has to figure out is Love.
Quote 7
“Now it is all dark. Now Beauty and Passion seem never to have existed. I know. But remember the mountains over Florence and the view. Ah, dear, if I were George, and gave you one kiss, it would make you brave. You have to go cold into a battle that needs warmth, out into the muddle that you have made yourself; and your mother and all your friends will despise you, oh, my darling, and rightly, if it is ever right to despise. George still dark, all the tussle and the misery without a word from him. Am I justified?” Into his own eyes tears came. “Yes, for we fight for more than Love or Pleasure; there is Truth. Truth counts, Truth does count” (19.52).
Here, almost at the close of the novel, Mr. Emerson tells Lucy what she’s needed to hear all along – Truth really matters. We can’t go around deceiving ourselves and others and still hope to have everything come out right; furthermore, we have to take responsibility for our actions and the “muddles” we make.
Quote 8
"My dear," said the old man gently, "I think that you are repeating what you have heard older people say. You are pretending to be touchy; but you are not really. Stop being so tiresome, and tell me instead what part of the church you want to see. To take you to it will be a real pleasure" (2.29).
Mr. Emerson flatly (but “gently”) refuses to accept any of the “delicate” and politically correct nonsense that Lucy regurgitates. He sees that she’s just adopting the stance of other women (notably Charlotte) who behave properly – and he highlights the fact that this is totally unnatural for her.