574 Quotes by Saul Bellow

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

Unexpected intrusions of beauty. This is what life is.

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

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)

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

All human accomplishment has this same origin, identically. Imagination is a force of nature. Is this not enough to make a person full of ecstasy? Imagination, imagination, imagination! It converts to actual. It sustains, it alters, it redeems!

It's usually the selfish people who are loved the most. They do what you deny yourself, and you love them for it. You give them your heart.

The earth is literally a mirror of thoughts. Objects themselves are embodied thoughts. Death is the dark backing that a mirror needs if we are to see anything.

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