“Conquered people tend to be witty. They keep the wolf of insignificance from the door.”

— Saul Bellow, Mr. Sammler's Planet (1970)

About Saul Bellow

1915 – 2005

Canadian-American novelist and Nobel laureate in Literature (1976).

“All human accomplishment has the same origin, identically. Imagination is a force of nature.”

“Goodness is achieved not in a vacuum, but in the company of other men, attended by love.”

“Everybody knows there is no fineness or accuracy of suppression; if you hold down one thing, you hold down the adjoining.”

“The older I grow, the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.”

“If a man could half his wishes he would double his troubles.”

“Wit is cultured insolence.”

“Your race, in its poverty, has unquestionably one really effective weapon—laughter.”

“A sense of humour is a sense of proportion.”

“My way of joking is to tell the truth. It's the funniest joke in the world.”