Home / Authors / Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quotes

Writer

Saul Bellow, born on June 10, 1915, in Canada, was an American Jewish writer. His works are known for their profound psychological insights and unique sense of humor. Bellow won the Nobel Prize in Literature. His representative works include 'Herzog', 'The Adventures of Augie March', and 'Henderson the Rain King'.

Filter quotes by topic

All Ifs People Men Humans Soul Knows Art Writing Heart Thinking Age Life America Firsts Inspirational May Book Life Is Love Mean

Famous Saul Bellow Quotes

“He didn't ask "Where will you spend eternity?" as religious the-end-is-near picketers did but rather, "With what, in this modern democracy, will you meet the demands of your soul?”

Soul Democracy Demands

Book:Ravelstein

Source: Ravelstein

“So deformity has overtaken love and love is a power that can't let us alone. It can't because we owe our existence to acts of love performed before us, because love is a standing debt of the soul.”

Book:Humboldt's Gift

Source: Humboldt's Gift

“A millennial belief in a Holy God may have the effect of deepening the soul, but it is also obviously archaic, and modern influences would presently bring me up to date and reveal how antiquated my origins were. To turn away from those origins, however, has always seemed to me an utter impossibility. It would be a treason to my first consciousness to un-Jew myself.”

Firsts May Soul Would Be Turns Belief Consciousness Influence Modern Effects Holy Jew Impossibility Treason Millennials Up To Date Holy God

Book:There Is Simply Too Much to Think About: Collected Nonfiction

Source: There Is Simply Too Much to Think About: Collected Nonfiction

“The soul has to find and hold its ground against hostile forces, sometimes embodied in ideas which frequently deny its very existence, and which indeed often seem to be trying to annul it altogether.”

Trying Ideas Soul Sometimes Seems Force Existence Deny Hostile

Author:Saul Bellow

“I don’t actually take much stock in the collapsing culture bit. I’m beginning to see it instead as the conduct of life without input from your soul.”

Soul Culture Bits Your Soul Input

Book:Collected Stories

Source: Collected Stories

“In here, the human bosom -- mine, yours, everybody's -- there isn't just one soul. There's a lot of souls. But there are two main ones, the real soul and a pretender soul. Now! Every man realizes that he has to love something or somebody. He feels that he must go outward. 'If thou canst not love, what art thou?' Are you with me?”

Ifs Men Feels Humans Art Two Real Soul Realizing Mines Every Man Just One Bosoms Pretender

Author:Saul Bellow

“A human soul devoid of longing was a soul deformed, deprived of its highest good, sick unto death.”

Humans Soul Desire Highest Sick Longing Deprived Human Soul

Book:Ravelstein

Source: Ravelstein

“Art -- the fresh feeling, new harmony, the transforming magic which by means of myth brings back the scattered distracted soul from its modern chaos -- art, not politics, is the remedy.”

Mean Art Soul Feelings Magic Modern Harmony Chaos Myth Remedy Distracted Transforming

Author:Saul Bellow

“In the history of the world many souls have been, are, and will be, and with a little reflection this is marvelous and not depressing. Many jerks are made gloomy about it, for they think quantity buries them alive. That's just crazy. Numbers are very dangerous, but the main thing about them is that they humble your pride. And that's good.”

Thinking World Littles Has Beens Made Soul Numbers Alive Crazy Dangerous Pride Reflection Humble Quantity Depressing Marvelous World History Jerk Gloomy

Author:Saul Bellow

“It is wrong to turn a man (a subject) into a thing (an object). By means of spiritual dialogue, the I-It relationship becomes an I-Thou relationship. God comes and goes in man's soul. And men come and go in each other's souls. Sometimes they come and go in each other's beds, too.”

Men Mean Soul Sometimes Spiritual Turns Subjects Objects Bed Dialogue Comes And Goes

Book:Herzog

Source: Herzog

“The body, she says, is subject to the force of gravity. But the soul is ruled by levity, pure.”

Love Soul Body Funny Force Subjects Pure Gravity Levity

Author: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.”

May Stills Soul Grows Difficult Business Access Confusion Surround Midlife Thickets

Author:Saul Bellow

“Humankind struggles with collective powers for its freedom, the individual struggles with dehumanization for the possession of his soul.”

Soul Individual Struggle Mankind Possession Collectives Humankind Dehumanization

Book:It All Adds Up: From the Dim Past to the Uncertain Future

Source: It All Adds Up: From the Dim Past to the Uncertain Future

“...there is no old age of the soul.”

Soul Age Aging Old Age

Author:Saul Bellow

“(Socrates) said there were only two possibilities. Either the soul is immortal or, after death, things would be again as blank as they were before we were born.”

Said Two Soul Would Be Born Possibility Immortality Immortal Blank After Death

Book:Humboldt's Gift

Source: Humboldt's Gift

“An exchange occurs between man and woman. Love and thought complete each other in the human pair, and something like an exchange of souls takes place, according to the divine plan.”

Men Love Humans Soul Plans Divine Men And Women Pairs

Author:Saul Bellow

About the Author

Born: June 10, 1915
Died: April 5, 2005
Known for: Writer
Quotes: 287

Related Topics

Ifs People Men Humans Soul Knows Art Writing Heart Thinking Age Life America Firsts Inspirational May Book Life Is Love Mean

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

HerzogRelated source material

Humboldt's GiftRelated source material

The Adventures of Augie MarchRelated source material

Mr. Sammler's PlanetRelated source material

It All Adds Up: From the Dim Past to the Uncertain FutureRelated source material

There Is Simply Too Much to Think About: Collected NonfictionRelated source material

Conversations with Saul BellowRelated source material

Seize the DayRelated source material

Henderson the Rain KingRelated source material

RavelsteinRelated source material

Similar Authors

Leo TolstoyBrowse related quotes
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheBrowse related quotes
Stephen KingBrowse related quotes
Gilbert K. ChestertonBrowse related quotes
Ralph Waldo EmersonBrowse related quotes
D. H. LawrenceBrowse related quotes
Friedrich NietzscheBrowse related quotes
Salman RushdieBrowse related quotes
Joyce Carol OatesBrowse related quotes
Margaret AtwoodBrowse related quotes