Quotes from Saul Bellow

Razmatraju?i sav svoj život, uvidio je da je pogrešno postupio u svemu - u svemu. Život mu je bio, štono kažu, upropašten. Ali pošto on, kao prvo, nije mnogo ni vrijedio, nije bilo ni naro?itog razloga žaljenja. Razmišljaju?i na smrdljivoj sofi o stolje?ima, devetnaestom, šestnaestom, osamnaestom, pronašao je u posljednjem izreku koja mu se svidjela: Žalost je, gospodine, vrsta dokonosti.

did just that but felt no better. The toxin carried by the fish was heat resistant, I was to learn, and more boiling or baking could not neutralize it. As it was explained to me later in Boston, the cigua toxin was quickly excreted by the body but not before it had radically damaged the nervous system. Very much like Ravelstein's Guillain-Barré syndrome. Among the first symptoms is a sudden distaste for food. I even disliked the look of it. I came to loathe all food odors.

what people called culture was nothing but a fancier term for their ignorance.

Što se ti?e njegovog odnosa prema mrtvima, taj je zaista bio vrlo loš. On je doista vjerovao da mrtvima treba prepustiti da pokopaju svoje mrtve. I da je život samo onda život kada se nedvosmisleno shva?a kao umiranje.

I know that I don't have to be next year what I was last year. I've been at one end and I can get to the other. There's no limit to what I can be. And even if I should miss being so dazzling, I know the idea of it is genuine.

To - to uto?ište mogao je imati, vjerovao je, da samo kaže jednu rije?. Zašto onda ne kaže tu rije?? Zato što bi današnje uto?ište moglo biti sutrašnja tamnica.

Skandal? ?ovjek ne treba da se povu?e pred malim skandalom. Bilo bi mu?no, groteskno, ali skandal je ipak neka vrsta službe društvu.

Jer kad ?emo mi civilizirana bi?a postati ozbiljni? upitao je Kierkegaard. Tek pošto dokraja i temeljito upoznamo pakao. Bez toga ?e hedonizam i lakomislenost proširiti pakao na sve naše dane.

Sre?a je besmislen pa ?ak i škodljiv pojam ako nije doista sveobuhvatna...

Ljepota nije ljudski izum.

On the floor was one of his large cards with a note in which he had written To do justice to Condorcet … He hadn't the heart to read further and turned it face down on the table. For the present, anyway, Condorcet would have to find another defender. In

Tko traži sre?u - morao bi biti spreman na loš ishod.

Ramona je ušutjela a Herzog je rekao: - Istina je - još mnogo toga trebam nau?iti. Ali marljiv sam. Radim na tom i stalno se osje?a napredak. Vjerujem da ?u biti u odli?noj formi na samrtnoj postelji. Oni koji su dobri umiru mladi, ali ja sam bio pošte?en toga da se izgra?ujem da bih mogao završiti život dobar kao an?eo.

And although not convinced by her, I wasn't utterly horrified for the unborn either. To be completely consistent in that kind of economy of souls you would have to have great uneasiness and remorse that wombs should ever be unoccupied; likewise, that hospitals, prisons, and madhouses and graves should ever be full. That wide a spread is too much.

He had almost fallen in with that part of humanity of which he was frequently mindful (he never forgot the hotel on lower Broadway), the part that did not get away with it—the lost, the outcast, the overcome, the effaced, the ruined.

I will do no more to enact the peculiarities of life. This is done well enough without my special assistance.

Tražiti ispunjenje vlastitih težnji u drugome, u me?usobnim odnosima, ženska je igra. A muškarac koji bira od žene do žene, premda u srcu osje?a bol zbog idealizma, zbog želje za ?istom ljubavi, ušao je u žensko carstvo.

He meditated on his weakness.

Ima u tome neke mudrosti, pomislio je, kao da bi posrtanjem mogao vratiti ravnotežu, ili priznaju?i malo ludila do?i pameti. A uživao je u šalama na svoj ra?un.

Pretpostavimo da sam ja apsolutno u pravu a da monsignor, na primjer, ima potpuno krivo. Ako sam ja u pravu, problem suvislosti svijeta, i sva odgovornost za nju, postaju moji.

Man is a creature who has something to say about everything under the sun.

Mislio je: Draže mi je prihvatiti kao motiv ne nešto što potpuno razumijem, nego ono što napola razumijem. Skrajnja jasno?a objašnjenja za mene je neiskrena.

Spremnost da se odgovori na sva pitanja nepogrešivi je znak gluposti.

Looking for happiness - ought to be prepared for bad results.