Saul Bellow Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• We are all such accidents. We do not make up history and culture. We simply appear, not by our own choice. We make what we can of our condition with the means available. We must accept the mixture as we find it - the impurity of it, the tragedy of it, the hope of it.

  Saul Bellow

  Mean, Choices, Tragedy

  Saul Bellow (2015). “There Is Simply Too Much to Think About: Collected Nonfiction”, p.90, Penguin

  9 Copy quote

• A person either creates or destroys. There is no neutrality.

  Saul Bellow

  Creativity, Neutrality, Persons

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• To tell the truth I never had it so good. But I lacked the strength of character to bear such joy.

  Saul Bellow

  Character, Joy, Bears

  Saul Bellow (1976). “Herzog”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

  5 Copy quote

• Boredom is the conviction that you can't change ... the shriek of unused capacities.

  Saul Bellow

  Blessing, Boredom, Conviction

  Saul Bellow (2012). “The Adventures of Augie March”, p.646, Penguin UK

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• Love is the most potent cosmetic.

  Saul Bellow

  Love, Love Is, Cosmetics

  Saul Bellow (2015). “Mr. Sammler's Planet”, p.20, Odyssey Editions

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• Death is the dark backing a mirror needs if we are to see anything

  Saul Bellow

  Dark, Mirrors, Needs

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• The late philosopher Morris R. Cohen of CCNY was asked by a student in the metaphysics course, Professor Cohen, how do I know that I exist? The keen old prof replied, And who is asking?

  Saul Bellow

  Asking, Philosopher, Students

  Saul Bellow (2008). “Humboldt's Gift”, Penguin Classics

  17 Copy quote

• Language is a spiritual mansion in which you live and nobody has the right to evict you.

  Saul Bellow

  Spiritual, Language, Mansions

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• It's goodbye to reality when love sets in.

  Saul Bellow

  Goodbye, Reality

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• When the striving ceases, there is life waiting as a gift.

  Saul Bellow

  Waiting, Strive, Cease

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• We mustn't forget how quickly the visions of genius become the canned goods of intellectuals.

  Saul Bellow

  Vision, Genius, Forget

  Saul Bellow (2010). “Saul Bellow: Letters”, p.15, Penguin

  20 Copy quote

• But she's a nut, and nuts win.

  Saul Bellow

  Winning, Nuts

  Saul Bellow (1976). “Herzog”, Viking Adult

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• A fool can throw a stone in a pond that 100 wise men can not get out.

  Saul Bellow

  Wise, Men, Ponds

  35 Copy quote

• Anxiety destroys scale, and suffering makes us lose perspective.

  Saul Bellow

  Perspective, Anxiety, Suffering

  Saul Bellow (2015). “There Is Simply Too Much to Think About: Collected Nonfiction”, p.85, Penguin

  14 Copy quote

• In every community there is a class of people profoundly dangerous to the rest. I don't mean the criminals. For them we have punitive sanctions. I mean the leaders. Invariably the most dangerous people seek the power. While in the parlors of indignation the right-thinking citizen brings his heart to a boil. (p. 51)

  Saul Bellow

  Heart, Mean, Thinking

  Saul Bellow (1976). “Herzog”, Viking Adult

  45 Copy quote

• Our society, like decadent Rome, has turned into an amusement society, with writers chief among the court jesters

  Saul Bellow

  Rome, Amusement, Our Society

  14 Copy quote

• People can lose their lives in libraries. They ought to be warned.

  Saul Bellow

  Reading, Book, People

  Saul Bellow (2016). “Him With His Foot In His Mouth and Other Stories”, p.10, Odyssey Editions

  27 Copy quote

• It seems, after all that there are no nonpeculiar people.

  Saul Bellow

  People, Seems

  Saul Bellow (2008). “Humboldt's Gift”, Penguin Classics

  8 Copy quote

• One thought-murder a day keeps the psychiatrist away.

  Saul Bellow

  Existentialism, Murder, Psychiatrist

  Saul Bellow (1976). “Herzog”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

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• I have begun in old age to understand...that we seldom if ever realize how generous we are to ourselves, and just how stingy with others.

  Saul Bellow

  Age, Realizing, Stingy

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• Open discussion of many major public questions has for some time now been taboo. We can't open our mouths without being denounced as racists, misogynists, supremacists, imperialists or fascists. As for the media, they stand ready to trash anyone so designated.

  Saul Bellow

  Media, Political, Racist

  "Bellow in his own words". www.theguardian.com. April 6, 2005.

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• Towards the end of your life you have something like a pain schedule to fill out - a long schedule like a federal document, only it's your pain schedule. Endless categories. First, physical causes - like arthritis, gallstones, menstrual cramps. New category, injured vanity, betrayal, swindle, injustice. But the hardest items of all have to do with love. The question then is: So why does everybody persist? If love cuts them up so much.

  Saul Bellow

  Pain, Betrayal, Cutting

  33 Copy quote

• Excuse me ... but I reject your definitions of me.

  Saul Bellow

  Definitions, Judgment, Excuse

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• People don't realize how much they are in the grip of ideas. We live among ideas much more than we live in nature.

  Saul Bellow

  Ideas, People, Insightful

  Saul Bellow, Gloria L. Cronin, Ben Siegel (1994). “Conversations with Saul Bellow”, p.95, Univ. Press of Mississippi

  14 Copy quote

• You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write.

  Saul Bellow

  Inspirational, Change, Inspiring

  "Bellow in his own words". www.theguardian.com. April 6, 2005.

  35 Copy quote

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