574 Quotes by Saul Bellow

History, memory – that is what makes us human, that, and our knowledge of death: ‘by man came death’. For knowledge of death makes us wish to extend our lives at the expense of others. And this is the root of the struggle for power.

Only self-hatred could lead him to ruin himself because his heart was “broken.

There’s nothing worse than being confused, too, in addition to being unlucky.

These were his friends of the business community; a man in business had to have such, and he visited and entertained but neither touched nor was touched, ever.

A bit of ideology and being up to date is most apropos,” Chekhov said – tongue in cheek, I suspect. In a more serious vein, he wrote that writers “should engage in politics only enough to protect themselves from politics.

But the blind did not go around very much. They sat, and didn’t seem to have any conversation, and soon you were aware of leisure gone bad. I had learned something of this during Einhorn’s days of dirty mental weather. Or of the soul, not the mind, the sick evil of not even knowing why anything should ail you since you’re resigned to accept all conditions.

Odd that mankind’s benefactors should be amusing people. In America at least this is often the case. Anyone who wants to govern the country has to entertain.

All at once he was aware that his angry spirit had stolen forth again and he was about to write letters.

One of life’s hardest jobs, to make a quick understanding slow.