Saul Bellow Quotes
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Great pressure is brought to bear to make us undervalue ourselves. On the other hand, civilization teaches that each of us is an inestimable prize. There are, then, these two preparations: one for life and the other for death. Therefore we value and are ashamed to value ourselves.
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All human accomplishment has the same origin, identically. Imagination is a force of nature. Is this not enough to make a person full of ecstasy? Imagination, imagination, imagination.
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With a novelist, like a surgeon, you have to get a feeling that you've fallen into good hands - someone from whom you can accept the anesthetic with confidence.
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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.
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We are funny creatures. We don't see the stars as they are, so why do we love them? They are not small gold objects, but endless fire.
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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
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I'm afraid there's nothing we can do about the journalists; we can only hope that they will die off as the deerflies do towards the end of August.
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... an era of turmoil and ideological confusion, the principal phenomenon of the present age.
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It's not up to me ... to make the world consistent.
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I am something of a crank about sleep, for if I get seven and a quarter hours instead of eight I feel afflicted and drag myself around, although there's nothing really wrong with me. It's just another idea. That's how it is with my ideas; they seem to get strong while I weaken.
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And what about all the good I have in my heart - does it mean anything?
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A man should be able to hear, and to bear, the worst that could be said of him.
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I am a phoenix who runs after arsonists.
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If women are expected to do the same work as men, we must teach them the same things.
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But privately when things got very bad I often looked into books to see whether I could find some helpful words, and one day I read, "The forgiveness of sins is perpetual and righteousness first is not required." This impressed me so deeply that I went around saying it to myself. But then I forgot which book it was.
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De Tocqueville considered the impulse toward well-being as one of the strongest impulses of a democratic society. He can't be blamed for underestimating the destructive powers generated by this same impulse.
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The only real distinction at this dangerous moment in human history and cosmic development has nothing to do with medals and ribbons. Not to fall asleep is distinguished. Everything else is mere popcorn.
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The body, she says, is subject to the force of gravity. But the soul is ruled by levity, pure.
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A man must have limits and cannot give in to the wild desires to be everything and everyone and everything to everyone.
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I don't like to write from a flat, cold position. You must like what you're doing very much or like the people -- either like them or hate them. You can't be indifferent.
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A plan relieves you of the torment of choice.
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Anxiety destroys scale, and suffering makes us lose perspective.
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A human soul devoid of longing was a soul deformed, deprived of its highest good, sick unto death.
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You have to fight for your life. That's the chief condition on which you hold it.