“We do not make up history and culture. We simply appear, not by our own choice.”

— Saul Bellow, Introduction, Great Jewish Short Stories (1963)

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.”

“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”

“He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life.”

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”