“What is imposed on us by birth and environment is what we are called upon to overcome.”

— Saul Bellow, "A Jewish Writer in America," New York Review of Books (2011)

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.”

“The instructions of an old man are precious.”

“Old age deprives the intelligent man only of qualities useless to wisdom.”

“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em.”

“I call upon you, young men, to obey your heart, and be the nobility of this land.”

“The young have exalted notions, because they have not been humbled by life or learned its necessary limitations.”