Saul Bellow Quotes

Quotes about:

• When we ask for advice, we are usually looking for an accomplice.

  Saul Bellow

  Funny, Humor, Advice

  53 Copy quote

• Associate with the noblest people you can find; read the best books; live with the mighty; but learn to be happy alone.

  Saul Bellow

  Happiness, Book, People

  Saul Bellow (2015). “Ravelstein”, p.140, Penguin

  64 Copy quote

• Unexpected intrusions of beauty. This is what life is.

  Saul Bellow

  Life, Beauty, Unexpected

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

  27 Copy quote

• You can spend the entire second half of your life recovering from the mistakes of the first half.

  Saul Bellow

  Inspirational, Mistake, Half

  Saul Bellow (2013). “Seize the Day”, p.70, Odyssey Editions

  57 Copy quote

• Readiness to answer all questions is the infallible sign of stupidity.

  Saul Bellow

  Stupidity, Answers, Readiness

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

  24 Copy quote

• A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.

  Saul Bellow

  Inspirational, Freedom, Fear

  Saul Bellow (2016). “To Jerusalem and Back”, p.100, Odyssey Editions

  88 Copy quote

• Whoever wants to reach a distant goal must take small steps.

  Saul Bellow

  Inspirational, Motivational, Uprising

  45 Copy quote

• I feel that art has something to do with the achievement of stillness in the midst of chaos. A stillness which characterizes prayer, too, and the eye of the storm. I think that art has something to do with an arrest of attention in the midst of distraction.

  Saul Bellow

  Art, Prayer, Eye

  In George Plimpton Writers at Work (1967) 3rd series, p. 190

  17 Copy quote

• Human character is smaller now, people don't have durable passions; they've replaced passions with excitement.

  Saul Bellow

  Passion, Character, People

  "The joy of texts". www.theguardian.com. September 10, 1997.

  11 Copy quote

• Take our politicians: they're a bunch of yo-yos. The presidency is now a cross between a popularity contest and a high school debate, with an encyclopedia of cliches.

  Saul Bellow

  School, Politics, Firsts

  "The Portable Curmudgeon". Book by Jon Winokur, p. 219, 1987.

  23 Copy quote

• There are times when the most practical thing is to lie down.

  Saul Bellow

  Lying, Practicals, Practical Things

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

  8 Copy quote

• Everybody needs his memories. They keep the wolf of insignificance from the door.

  Saul Bellow

  Memories, Doors, Needs

  SAUL BELLOW (1971). “MR. SAMMLER'S PLANET”

  53 Copy quote

• Losing a parent is something like driving through a plate-glass window. You didn't know it was there until it shattered, and then for years to come you're picking up the pieces -- down to the last glassy splinter.

  Saul Bellow

  Glasses, Years, Parent

  Saul Bellow (2010). “Saul Bellow: Letters”, p.492, Penguin

  22 Copy quote

• ...there is no old age of the soul.

  Saul Bellow

  Soul, Age, Aging

  8 Copy quote

• A man is only as good as what he loves.

  Saul Bellow

  Love, Inspirational, Funny Valentines Day

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

  54 Copy quote

• In an age of madness, to expect to be untouched by madness is a form of madness. But the pursuit of sanity can be a form of madness, too

  Saul Bellow

  Crazy, Mad, Age

  1959 Henderson The Rain King, ch.3.

  33 Copy quote

• Hapiness can only be found if you can free yourself of all other distractions.

  Saul Bellow

  Free Yourself, Madness, Distraction

  26 Copy quote

• A plan relieves you of the torment of choice.

  Saul Bellow

  Choices, Plans, Torment

  17 Copy quote

• The best and purest human beings, from the beginning of time, have understood that life is sacred.

  Saul Bellow

  Life, Sacred, Understood

  Saul Bellow (2015). “Mr. Sammler's Planet”, p.14, Odyssey Editions

  8 Copy quote

• A man should be able to hear, and to bear, the worst that could be said of him.

  Saul Bellow

  Real Men, Able, Bears

  Saul Bellow (2015). “Ravelstein”, p.72, Penguin

  17 Copy quote

• 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

• Socrates said the unexamined life is not worth living. But the over-examined life makes you wish you were dead. Given the alternative, I'd rather be living.

  Saul Bellow

  Wish, Alternatives, Life Is

  6 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

  25 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

  44 Copy quote

• 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

  16 Copy quote

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