When we ask for advice, we are usually looking for an accomplice.
Saul BellowRead
Associate with the noblest people you can find; read the best books; live with the mighty; but learn to be happy alone.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Surround yourself with greatness but find contentment in solitude.
This quote emphasizes the importance of associating with inspiring individuals and engaging with quality literature while also cultivating a sense of happiness and fulfillment in one's own company. It suggests that true happiness comes not solely from external sources but also from within, encouraging individuals to balance their relationships with self-sufficiency and inner peace.
Themes
HappinessSolitudeSelf-ContentmentWisdomRelationships
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be shared at a graduation ceremony to inspire students to seek quality associations while embracing who they are.
More from Saul Bellow
All quotes βIn here, the human bosom -- mine, yours, everybody's -- there isn't just one soul. There's a lot of souls. But there are two main ones, the real soul and a pretender soul. Now! Every man realizes that he has to love something or somebody. He feels that he must go outward. 'If thou canst not love, what art thou?' Are you with me?
Saul BellowRead
I've discovered that rejections are not altogether a bad thing. They teach a writer to rely on his own judgment and to say in his heart of hearts, 'To hell with you.'
Saul BellowRead
I see that I've become a really bad correspondent. It's not that I don't think of you. You come into my thoughts often. But when you do it appears to me that I owe you a particularly grand letter. And so you end in the "warehouse of good intentions": "Can't do it now." "Then put it on hold." This is one's strategy for coping with old age, and with death--because one can't die with so many obligations in storage. Our clever species, so fertile and resourceful in denying its weaknesses.
Saul BellowRead
A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.
Saul BellowRead
Goodness is achieved not in a vacuum, but in the company of other men, attended by love.
Saul BellowRead
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Do you know this Sanskrit Shloka: "Let those who are versed in the ethical codes praise or blame, let Lakshmi, the goddess of Fortune, come or go wherever she wisheth, let death overtake him today or after a century, the wise man never swerves from the path of rectitude." Let people praise you or blame you, let fortune smile or frown upon you, let your body fall today or after a Yuga, see that you do not deviate from the path of Truth.
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If you put your hand into a fire, does anyone have to tell you to move it? Do you have to decide? No: When your hand starts to burn, it moves. You donβt have to direct it; the hand moves itself. In the same way, once you understand, through inquiry, that an untrue thought causes suffering, you move away from it.
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Better be wise by the misfortunes of others than by your own.
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