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Saul Bellow

Other
I was lucky. I got away with it.” He meant that his bad start, his mistakes, the things that might have wrecked him, had somehow combined to establish him. He had almost fallen in with that part of humanity of which he was frequently mindful . . . the part that did not get away with it—the lost, the outcast, the overcome, the effaced, the ruined.
From The Victim
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Success
I might have added, as it entered my mind to do, that some people found satisfaction in being. Being. Others in becoming. Being people have all the breaks. Becoming people are very unlucky, always in a tizzy. The Becoming people are always have to make explanations or offer justifications of the Being people. While the Being people provoke these explanations.
From Henderson the Rain King
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Topic: Philosophical
Live or die, but don't poison everything.
From Herzog
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Topic: Death
Death watches. So if you have some happiness, conceal it. And when your heart is full, keep your mouth shut also.
From Herzog
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Happiness
With one long breath, caught and held in his chest, he fought his sadness over his solitary life. Don't cry, you idiot! Live or die, but don't poison everything...
From Herzog
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death
Unexpected intrusions of beauty. This is what life is.
From Herzog
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Life
When we ask for advice, we are usually looking for an accomplice.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Funny
The earth was a grave: our life was lent to it by its elements and had to be returned: a time came when the simple elements seemed to long for release from the complicated forms of life, when every element of every cell said, "Enough!" The planet was our mother and our burial ground. No wonder the human spirit wished to leave. Leave this prolific belly. Leave also this great tomb. Passion for the infinite caused by the terror, by timor mortis, needed material appeasement.
From Mr. Sammler's Planet
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death
There is no limit to the amount of intelligence invested in ignorance when the need for illusion runs deep.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
Death is going to take the boundaries away from us, that we should no more be persons. That's what death is about. When that is what life also wants to be about, how can you feel except rebellious?
From The Adventures of Augie March
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death
And everything soon must change. Men would set their watches by other suns than this. Or time would vanish. We would need no personal names of the old sort in the sidereal future, nothing being fixed. We would be designated by other nouns. Days and nights would belong to the museums. The earth a memorial park, a merry-go-round cemetery. The seas powdering our bones like quartz, making sand, grinding our peace for us by the aeon. Well, that would be good - a melancholy good.
From Mr. Sammler's Planet
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death
Associate with the noblest people you can find; read the best books; live with the mighty; but learn to be happy alone.
From Ravelstein
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Happiness, Life
I see that I've become a really bad correspondent. It's not that I don't think of you. You come into my thoughts often. But when you do it appears to me that I owe you a particularly grand letter. And so you end in the "warehouse of good intentions": "Can't do it now." "Then put it on hold." This is one's strategy for coping with old age, and with death--because one can't die with so many obligations in storage. Our clever species, so fertile and resourceful in denying its weaknesses.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death
I was lucky. I got away with it.” He meant that his bad start, his mistakes, the things that might have wrecked him, had somehow combined to establish him. He had almost fallen in with that part of humanity of which he was frequently mindful . . . the part that did not get away with it—the lost, the outcast, the overcome, the effaced, the ruined.
From The Victim
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Success
I might have added, as it entered my mind to do, that some people found satisfaction in being. Being. Others in becoming. Being people have all the breaks. Becoming people are very unlucky, always in a tizzy. The Becoming people are always have to make explanations or offer justifications of the Being people. While the Being people provoke these explanations.
From Henderson the Rain King
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Philosophical
Live or die, but don't poison everything.
From Herzog
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death
Death watches. So if you have some happiness, conceal it. And when your heart is full, keep your mouth shut also.
From Herzog
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Happiness
With one long breath, caught and held in his chest, he fought his sadness over his solitary life. Don't cry, you idiot! Live or die, but don't poison everything...
From Herzog
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death
Unexpected intrusions of beauty. This is what life is.
From Herzog
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Life
When we ask for advice, we are usually looking for an accomplice.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Funny
The earth was a grave: our life was lent to it by its elements and had to be returned: a time came when the simple elements seemed to long for release from the complicated forms of life, when every element of every cell said, "Enough!" The planet was our mother and our burial ground. No wonder the human spirit wished to leave. Leave this prolific belly. Leave also this great tomb. Passion for the infinite caused by the terror, by timor mortis, needed material appeasement.
From Mr. Sammler's Planet
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death
There is no limit to the amount of intelligence invested in ignorance when the need for illusion runs deep.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
Death is going to take the boundaries away from us, that we should no more be persons. That's what death is about. When that is what life also wants to be about, how can you feel except rebellious?
From The Adventures of Augie March
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death
And everything soon must change. Men would set their watches by other suns than this. Or time would vanish. We would need no personal names of the old sort in the sidereal future, nothing being fixed. We would be designated by other nouns. Days and nights would belong to the museums. The earth a memorial park, a merry-go-round cemetery. The seas powdering our bones like quartz, making sand, grinding our peace for us by the aeon. Well, that would be good - a melancholy good.
From Mr. Sammler's Planet
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death
Associate with the noblest people you can find; read the best books; live with the mighty; but learn to be happy alone.
From Ravelstein
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Happiness, Life
I see that I've become a really bad correspondent. It's not that I don't think of you. You come into my thoughts often. But when you do it appears to me that I owe you a particularly grand letter. And so you end in the "warehouse of good intentions": "Can't do it now." "Then put it on hold." This is one's strategy for coping with old age, and with death--because one can't die with so many obligations in storage. Our clever species, so fertile and resourceful in denying its weaknesses.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death
I was lucky. I got away with it.” He meant that his bad start, his mistakes, the things that might have wrecked him, had somehow combined to establish him. He had almost fallen in with that part of humanity of which he was frequently mindful . . . the part that did not get away with it—the lost, the outcast, the overcome, the effaced, the ruined.
From The Victim
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Success
I might have added, as it entered my mind to do, that some people found satisfaction in being. Being. Others in becoming. Being people have all the breaks. Becoming people are very unlucky, always in a tizzy. The Becoming people are always have to make explanations or offer justifications of the Being people. While the Being people provoke these explanations.
From Henderson the Rain King
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Philosophical
Live or die, but don't poison everything.
From Herzog
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death
Death watches. So if you have some happiness, conceal it. And when your heart is full, keep your mouth shut also.
From Herzog
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Happiness
With one long breath, caught and held in his chest, he fought his sadness over his solitary life. Don't cry, you idiot! Live or die, but don't poison everything...
From Herzog
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death
Unexpected intrusions of beauty. This is what life is.
From Herzog
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Life
When we ask for advice, we are usually looking for an accomplice.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Funny
The earth was a grave: our life was lent to it by its elements and had to be returned: a time came when the simple elements seemed to long for release from the complicated forms of life, when every element of every cell said, "Enough!" The planet was our mother and our burial ground. No wonder the human spirit wished to leave. Leave this prolific belly. Leave also this great tomb. Passion for the infinite caused by the terror, by timor mortis, needed material appeasement.
From Mr. Sammler's Planet
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death
There is no limit to the amount of intelligence invested in ignorance when the need for illusion runs deep.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
Death is going to take the boundaries away from us, that we should no more be persons. That's what death is about. When that is what life also wants to be about, how can you feel except rebellious?
From The Adventures of Augie March
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death
And everything soon must change. Men would set their watches by other suns than this. Or time would vanish. We would need no personal names of the old sort in the sidereal future, nothing being fixed. We would be designated by other nouns. Days and nights would belong to the museums. The earth a memorial park, a merry-go-round cemetery. The seas powdering our bones like quartz, making sand, grinding our peace for us by the aeon. Well, that would be good - a melancholy good.
From Mr. Sammler's Planet
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death
Associate with the noblest people you can find; read the best books; live with the mighty; but learn to be happy alone.
From Ravelstein
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Happiness, Life
I see that I've become a really bad correspondent. It's not that I don't think of you. You come into my thoughts often. But when you do it appears to me that I owe you a particularly grand letter. And so you end in the "warehouse of good intentions": "Can't do it now." "Then put it on hold." This is one's strategy for coping with old age, and with death--because one can't die with so many obligations in storage. Our clever species, so fertile and resourceful in denying its weaknesses.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death