Saul Bellow

"We are all unreliable narrators of our own lives."

"The greatest gift is attention—really paying attention to another person."

"In the end, the most interesting thing about any person is their story."

"The world does not care about your intentions; it only cares about results."

"To be human is to be in constant dialogue with your own death."

"The deepest form of intelligence is the capacity for wonder."

"We are all strangers to ourselves."

"What makes life worth living is the struggle to create meaning in a meaningless universe."

"The bond between humans is stronger than any force of nature."

"The fact that so many people shrug and accept injustice is the real tragedy of our time."

"We are always looking for the meaning of life while living it."

"Boredom is an indication that you are living inauthentically."

"What do you do when you have a culture that doesn't really believe in itself anymore?"

"The mastery of nature is vainly believed to be the highest achievement of mankind."

"One of the secrets of life is to make stepping stones out of stumbling blocks."

"A man may say anything about himself without shame."

"If you don't fail, you're not even trying."

"The private sector is often more efficient, but at what cost to the human spirit?"

"Love is the most deceptive of all human emotions."

"We must learn to live with uncertainty or be forever anxious."

"The pursuit of happiness is itself an American delusion."

"Art is the effort to make something of the chaos of experience."

"A writer must be willing to tell the truth about human nature, no matter how unflattering."

"The intellect is at its best when it ceases to analyze and simply observes."

"Mortality is the real thing, and we spend our lives avoiding it."

"Friendship requires a peculiar kind of honesty that most people cannot sustain."

"We are dying of comforts and amusements."

"The best books are treasuries of good words."

"Success often corrupts the very soul it was meant to elevate."

"The fear of death is ultimately the fear of life unlived."