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Top 500 Saul Bellow Quotes (2026 Update)
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Saul Bellow Quote: “He liked to wear good clothes, but once he had put it on each article appeared to go its own way.”

251. “He liked to wear good clothes, but once he had put it on each article appeared to go its own way.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul!”

252. “Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul!”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “He had made mistakes, but he could overlook these. He had been a fool, but that could be forgiven. The time wasted – must be relinquished.”

253. “He had made mistakes, but he could overlook these. He had been a fool, but that could be forgiven. The time wasted – must be relinquished.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “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.”

254. “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.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “Whenever I write a dramatic poem I can’t understand why the characters should ever want to be anything but poets themselves.”

255. “Whenever I write a dramatic poem I can’t understand why the characters should ever want to be anything but poets themselves.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “Did I say that the world had never had better color? I left something out of account, a limping, crippled consideration which seems to lose ground as you reach beauty and Orizaba flowers, but soon you find it has preceded you.”

256. “Did I say that the world had never had better color? I left something out of account, a limping, crippled consideration which seems to lose ground as you reach beauty and Orizaba flowers, but soon you find it has preceded you.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “In this view the body itself, with its two arms and vertical length, was compared to the Cross, on which you knew the agony of consciousness and separate being.”

257. “In this view the body itself, with its two arms and vertical length, was compared to the Cross, on which you knew the agony of consciousness and separate being.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “We took the coal-and-ice dealers into taverns and drank beer and swapped talk, in those sleepy and dark with heat joints where the very flies crept rather than flew, seeming doped by the urinal camphors and malt sourness, and from the heated emptiness and woodblock-knocking of the baseball broadcast that gave only more constriction to the unlocatable, undiagnosed wrong.”

258. “We took the coal-and-ice dealers into taverns and drank beer and swapped talk, in those sleepy and dark with heat joints where the very flies crept rather than flew, seeming doped by the urinal camphors and malt sourness, and from the heated emptiness and woodblock-knocking of the baseball broadcast that gave only more constriction to the unlocatable, undiagnosed wrong.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “I guess nothing restrains people from demanding ideal conditions. Very little restrains them from anything.”

259. “I guess nothing restrains people from demanding ideal conditions. Very little restrains them from anything.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “Fitness was not his cup of tea. He treated his body like a vehicle – a motorbike that he raced at top speed along the rim of the Grand Canyon.”

260. “Fitness was not his cup of tea. He treated his body like a vehicle – a motorbike that he raced at top speed along the rim of the Grand Canyon.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “My next idea was how nothing was more dreadful than to be forced by another to feel his persuasion as to how horrible it is to exist, how deathly to hope, and taste the same despair. How of all the impositions this was the worst imposition. Not just to be as they make you but to feel as they dictate. If you didn’t have the strongest alliance you surely would despair at last and your mouth would drink blood.”

261. “My next idea was how nothing was more dreadful than to be forced by another to feel his persuasion as to how horrible it is to exist, how deathly to hope, and taste the same despair. How of all the impositions this was the worst imposition. Not just to be as they make you but to feel as they dictate. If you didn’t have the strongest alliance you surely would despair at last and your mouth would drink blood.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “Take the fact that people generally were full of loathing and it cost them an effort to look at one another. Mostly they wanted to be let alone. And they dug for unreality more than for treasure, unreality being last great hope because then they could doubt that what they knew about themselves was true.”

262. “Take the fact that people generally were full of loathing and it cost them an effort to look at one another. Mostly they wanted to be let alone. And they dug for unreality more than for treasure, unreality being last great hope because then they could doubt that what they knew about themselves was true.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “Seashores are good for madmen – provided they’re not too mad.”

263. “Seashores are good for madmen – provided they’re not too mad.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “Fun comes hard – like, alas, its prarens, pleasure and happiness, whom we have to pursue.”

264. “Fun comes hard – like, alas, its prarens, pleasure and happiness, whom we have to pursue.”

— Saul Bellow

Featured in: Fun Quotes

Saul Bellow Quote: “Thoughts should be real. Words should have a definite meanings and a man should believe what he said.”

265. “Thoughts should be real. Words should have a definite meanings and a man should believe what he said.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “There’s nothing worse than being confused, too, in addition to being unlucky.”

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

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “It was all there. Only he was not through with love and hate elsewhere.”

267. “It was all there. Only he was not through with love and hate elsewhere.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “What use was war without also love?”

268. “What use was war without also love?”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “The same things are done by us, over and over, with terrible predictability. One may be forgiven, in view of this, for wishing at least to associate with beauty.”

269. “The same things are done by us, over and over, with terrible predictability. One may be forgiven, in view of this, for wishing at least to associate with beauty.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “Therefore we didn’t talk of genuine things.”

270. “Therefore we didn’t talk of genuine things.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “There haven’t been civilizations without cities. But what about cities without civilizations? An inhuman thing, if possible, to have so many people together who beget nothing on one another. No, but it is not possible, and the dreary begets its own fire, and so this never happens.”

271. “There haven’t been civilizations without cities. But what about cities without civilizations? An inhuman thing, if possible, to have so many people together who beget nothing on one another. No, but it is not possible, and the dreary begets its own fire, and so this never happens.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “Charlotte came in herself, like a big bridal edifice in her veil and other lace, carrying long-stemmed flowers. With her there wasn’t much hiding of the behind-the-scenes of life to keep a man in the bonds of love, as Lucretius advises when he tells you to make allowances for mortality. You only had to see her practical mouth to know everything about mortality was admitted in advance, though she did for form’s sake all that other women do. Her frankness gave her a kind of nobility.”

272. “Charlotte came in herself, like a big bridal edifice in her veil and other lace, carrying long-stemmed flowers. With her there wasn’t much hiding of the behind-the-scenes of life to keep a man in the bonds of love, as Lucretius advises when he tells you to make allowances for mortality. You only had to see her practical mouth to know everything about mortality was admitted in advance, though she did for form’s sake all that other women do. Her frankness gave her a kind of nobility.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “So things go on as before with those who think a great deal and effect nothing, and those who think nothing evidently doing it all...”

273. “So things go on as before with those who think a great deal and effect nothing, and those who think nothing evidently doing it all...”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “He had come into a view of mutability, and I too could see that one is only ostensibly born to remain in specified limits.”

274. “He had come into a view of mutability, and I too could see that one is only ostensibly born to remain in specified limits.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “I am giving up the violin. I guess I will never reach my object through it,” to raise my spirit from the earth, to leave the body of this death. I was very stubborn. I wanted to raise myself into another world. My life and deeds were a prison.”

275. “I am giving up the violin. I guess I will never reach my object through it,” to raise my spirit from the earth, to leave the body of this death. I was very stubborn. I wanted to raise myself into another world. My life and deeds were a prison.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “I still had the craving that I had given in to all summer long when I had lived on books, to have the reach to grasp both ends of the frame and turn the big image-taking glass to any scene of the world.”

276. “I still had the craving that I had given in to all summer long when I had lived on books, to have the reach to grasp both ends of the frame and turn the big image-taking glass to any scene of the world.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “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.”

277. “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.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “I don’t know exactly how it’s done. I let it alone a good deal.”

278. “I don’t know exactly how it’s done. I let it alone a good deal.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “Humankind is still fooling around with hypocrisy, I thought. They don’t realize that it’s too late even for that.”

279. “Humankind is still fooling around with hypocrisy, I thought. They don’t realize that it’s too late even for that.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “Even if I am not the honestest type in the world I don’t want to lie more than is average.”

280. “Even if I am not the honestest type in the world I don’t want to lie more than is average.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “To accept too many favors from Ramona was dangerous. He might have to pay with his freedom. Of course he didn’t need that freedom now; he needed a rest. Still, after resting, he might want his freedom again. He wasn’t sure of that, either. But it was a possibility.”

281. “To accept too many favors from Ramona was dangerous. He might have to pay with his freedom. Of course he didn’t need that freedom now; he needed a rest. Still, after resting, he might want his freedom again. He wasn’t sure of that, either. But it was a possibility.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “I’m deprived of my children.” Wilhelm bit his lip. It was too late to turn away. The anguish struck him. “I pay and pay. I never see them. They grow up without me. She makes them like herself. She’ll bring them up to be my enemies.”

282. “I’m deprived of my children.” Wilhelm bit his lip. It was too late to turn away. The anguish struck him. “I pay and pay. I never see them. They grow up without me. She makes them like herself. She’ll bring them up to be my enemies.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “If you could arrange to avoid that routine job-world, you were an intellectual or an artist. Too restless, tremorous, agitated, too mad to sit at a desk eight hours a day, you needed an institution – a higher institution.”

283. “If you could arrange to avoid that routine job-world, you were an intellectual or an artist. Too restless, tremorous, agitated, too mad to sit at a desk eight hours a day, you needed an institution – a higher institution.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “I wonder whether there will ever be enough tranquility under modern circumstances to allow our contemporary Wordsworth to recollect anything. I feel that art has something to do with the achievement of stillness in the midst of chaos. A stillness that characterizes prayer, too, and the eye of the storm. I think that art has something to do with an arrest of attention in the midst of distraction.”

284. “I wonder whether there will ever be enough tranquility under modern circumstances to allow our contemporary Wordsworth to recollect anything. I feel that art has something to do with the achievement of stillness in the midst of chaos. A stillness that characterizes prayer, too, and the eye of the storm. I think that art has something to do with an arrest of attention in the midst of distraction.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “In the depths of a man’s being there was something that responded with a quack to such perfume. Quack!”

285. “In the depths of a man’s being there was something that responded with a quack to such perfume. Quack!”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “I’ve had all the monstrosity I want.”

286. “I’ve had all the monstrosity I want.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “Alternatives, and particularly desirable alternatives, grow only on imaginary trees.”

287. “Alternatives, and particularly desirable alternatives, grow only on imaginary trees.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “The true soul is the one that pays the price. It suffers and gets sick, and it realizes that the pretender can’t be loved.”

288. “The true soul is the one that pays the price. It suffers and gets sick, and it realizes that the pretender can’t be loved.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “Do we always, always to the point of misery, do a thing?”

289. “Do we always, always to the point of misery, do a thing?”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “In any true life you must go and be exposed outside the small circle that encompasses two or three heads in the same history of love.”

290. “In any true life you must go and be exposed outside the small circle that encompasses two or three heads in the same history of love.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “Keep out of this, please, will you, Mildred? A child isn’t a toy.” “Oh,” she said, “they grow up. Time does it more than fathers and mothers. The parents take too much credit.”

291. “Keep out of this, please, will you, Mildred? A child isn’t a toy.” “Oh,” she said, “they grow up. Time does it more than fathers and mothers. The parents take too much credit.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “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.”

292. “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.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “You have to have the power to employ pain, to repent, to be illuminated, you must have the opportunity and even the time.”

293. “You have to have the power to employ pain, to repent, to be illuminated, you must have the opportunity and even the time.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “It’s no small matter to become rich and famous by saying exactly what you think – to say it in your own words, without compromise.”

294. “It’s no small matter to become rich and famous by saying exactly what you think – to say it in your own words, without compromise.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “Only self-hatred could lead him to ruin himself because his heart was “broken.”

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

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “Oh, God,” Wilhelm prayed, “Let me out of my trouble. Let me out of my thoughts, and let me do something better with myself. For all the time I have wasted I am very sorry. Let me out of this clutch and into a different life. For I am all balled up. Have mercy.”

296. “Oh, God,” Wilhelm prayed, “Let me out of my trouble. Let me out of my thoughts, and let me do something better with myself. For all the time I have wasted I am very sorry. Let me out of this clutch and into a different life. For I am all balled up. Have mercy.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “A rich man may be free on an income of a million net. A poor man may be free because nobody cares what he does. But a fellow in my position has to sweat it out until he drops dead.”

297. “A rich man may be free on an income of a million net. A poor man may be free because nobody cares what he does. But a fellow in my position has to sweat it out until he drops dead.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “You saw how he put his paws over my face so I couldn’t breathe?” she said. “God made him to be a butcher. Why did he become a dentist? His hands are too heavy. The touch is everything to a dentist. If his hands aren’t right he shouldn’t be let practice. But his wife worked hard to send him through school and make a dentist of him. And I must go to him and be burned because of it.”

298. “You saw how he put his paws over my face so I couldn’t breathe?” she said. “God made him to be a butcher. Why did he become a dentist? His hands are too heavy. The touch is everything to a dentist. If his hands aren’t right he shouldn’t be let practice. But his wife worked hard to send him through school and make a dentist of him. And I must go to him and be burned because of it.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “I have, perhaps, a slave-like constitution which is too easily restrained by bonds; it then becomes rebellious and bursts out in a comic revolution.”

299. “I have, perhaps, a slave-like constitution which is too easily restrained by bonds; it then becomes rebellious and bursts out in a comic revolution.”

— Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow Quote: “With his friends, an egotist. With love, lazy. With brightness, dull. With power, passive. With his own soul, evasive.”

300. “With his friends, an egotist. With love, lazy. With brightness, dull. With power, passive. With his own soul, evasive.”

— Saul Bellow

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