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A man should be able to hear, and to bear, the worst that could be said of him.
Saul Bellow -
Death deserves dignity.
Saul Bellow
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But a man's character is his fate... and in the end there isn't any way to disguise the nature of the knocks by acoustical work on the door or gloving the knuckles.
Saul Bellow -
I don't know exactly how it's done. I let it alone a good deal.
Saul Bellow -
I'm glad I haven't lived in vain.
Saul Bellow -
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 -
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.
Saul Bellow -
Those who have a why to live for can bear almost any how. The necessary premise is that a person is somehow more than his or her "characteristics," all the emotions, strivings, tastes, and constructions which it pleases us to call "My Life." We have grounds to hope that a Life is something more than a cloud of particles, mere facticity. Go through what is comprehensible and you conclude that only the incomprehensible gives any light.
Saul Bellow
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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.
Saul Bellow -
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.
Saul Bellow -
In the greatest confusion there is still an open channel to the soul. It may be difficult to find because by midlife it is overgrown, and some of the wildest thickets that surround it grow out of what we describe as our education. But the channel is always there, and it is our business to keep it open, to have access to the deepest part of ourselves.
Saul Bellow -
Americans must be the most sententious people in history. Far too busy to be religious, they have always felt that they sorely needed guidance.
Saul Bellow -
I must play the instrument I've got.
Saul Bellow -
There are evils that have the ability to survive identification and go on for ever... money, for instance, or war.
Saul Bellow
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I pretended not to understand. One of life's hardest jobs, to make a quick understanding slow. I think I succeeded, thought Herzog.
Saul Bellow -
Art attempts to find in the universe, in matter as well as in the facts of life, what is fundamental, enduring, essential.
Saul Bellow -
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.
Saul Bellow -
A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.
Saul Bellow -
How should I know why! I didn't invent human beings, Iggy.
Saul Bellow -
There is simply too much to think about.
Saul Bellow
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Death is the black backing on the mirror that allows us to see anything at all.
Saul Bellow -
Whoever wants to reach a distant goal must take small steps.
Saul Bellow -
It seems, after all that there are no nonpeculiar people.
Saul Bellow -
The best and purest human beings, from the beginning of time, have understood that life is sacred.
Saul Bellow