Boredom is the conviction that you can't change ... the shriek of unused capacities. Saul Bellow More Quotes by Saul Bellow More Quotes From Saul Bellow Strict seriousness was far more dangerous than any joke. Saul Bellow strictseriousnessdangerous Losing a parent is something like driving through a plate-glass window. You didn't know it was there until it shattered, and then for years to come you're picking up the pieces -- down to the last glassy splinter. Saul Bellow glassesparentyears I am a phoenix who runs after arsonists. Saul Bellow arsonistsphoenixrunning The life of every citizen is becoming a business. This, it seems to me, is one of the worst interpretations of the meaning of human life history has ever seen. Man's life is not a business. Saul Bellow becomingcitizensmen If I had a child of school age, I would send him to one of the Waldorf Schools. Saul Bellow agechildrenschool In an age of enormities, the emotions are naturally weakened. We are continually called upon to have feelings - about genocide, for instance, or about famine or the blowing up of passenger planes - and we are all aware that we are incapable of reacting appropriately. A guilty consciousness of emotional inadequacy or impotence makes people doubt their own human weight. Saul Bellow emotionalfeelingspeople Take our politicians: they're a bunch of yo-yos. The presidency is now a cross between a popularity contest and a high school debate, with an encyclopedia of cliches. Saul Bellow politicsschoolfirsts People don't realize how much they are in the grip of ideas. We live among ideas much more than we live in nature. Saul Bellow insightfulpeopleideas ...America didn't have to fight scarcity and we all felt guilty before people who still had to struggle for bread and freedom in the old way ... We weren't starving, we weren't bugged by the police, locked up in madhouses for our ideas, arrested, deported, slave laborers sent to die in concentration camps. We were spared the holocausts and nights of terror. With our advantages we should be formulating the new basic questions for mankind. But instead we sleep. Just sleep and sleep, and eat and play and fuss and sleep again. Saul Bellow fightingstrugglesleep The late philosopher Morris R. Cohen of CCNY was asked by a student in the metaphysics course, Professor Cohen, how do I know that I exist? The keen old prof replied, And who is asking? Saul Bellow philosopherstudentsasking 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 starsfireinspirational It seems, after all that there are no nonpeculiar people. Saul Bellow seemspeople I'm glad I haven't lived in vain. Saul Bellow agingvainglad 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. Saul Bellow solitary-lifesadnesslong We mustn't forget how quickly the visions of genius become the canned goods of intellectuals. Saul Bellow visiongeniusforget A plan relieves you of the torment of choice. Saul Bellow tormentplanschoices Human character is smaller now, people don't have durable passions; they've replaced passions with excitement. Saul Bellow passioncharacterpeople The physical body is an agent of the spirit and its mirror. It is an engine and a reflection of the spirit. It is the spirit's ingenious memorandum to itself and the spirit sees itself in my body, just as I see my own face in a looking glass. My nerves reflect this. 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. Saul Bellow glassesreflectiondark Open discussion of many major public questions has for some time now been taboo. We can't open our mouths without being denounced as racists, misogynists, supremacists, imperialists or fascists. As for the media, they stand ready to trash anyone so designated. Saul Bellow racistmediapolitical A man must have limits and cannot give in to the wild desires to be everything and everyone and everything to everyone. Saul Bellow desiregivingmen
