Saul Bellow

The men who have furnished me with my greatest inspiration have not been men of wealth, but men of deeds.

If a man could say nothing against a character but what he can prove, history could not be written.

Important encounters are planned by the souls long before the bodies see each other.

We are often deterred from crime by the disgrace of others.

No matter how plain a woman may be, if truth and honesty are written across her face, she will be beautiful.

He gains everyone’s approval who mixes the pleasant with the useful.

Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.

The serpent if it wants to become the dragon must eat itself.

The fact that a believer is happier than a sceptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality.

Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience.

October. This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks in. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August, and February.

From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.

Every man will be a poet if he can; otherwise a philosopher or man of science. This proves the superiority of the poet.

The little may contrast with the great, in painting, but cannot be said to be contrary to it. Oppositions of colors contrast; but there are also colors contrary to each other, that is, which produce an ill effect because they shock the eye when brought very near it.

That is the whole secret of successful fighting. Get your enemy at a disadvantage; and never, on any account, fight him on equal terms.