Associate with the noblest people you can find; read the best books; live with the mighty; but learn to be happy alone.
Saul BellowRead
I seem to have the blind self-acceptance of the eccentric who can't conceive that his eccentricities are not clearly understood.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects a unique perspective on self-acceptance, highlighting the disconnect between one's self-perception and how others perceive them.
Saul Bellow's quote speaks to the idea of eccentricity and self-acceptance, suggesting that some individuals, particularly those who embody eccentric traits, may possess a profound, almost unyielding acceptance of themselves despite others' inability to understand or relate to their behaviors. This creates a rift where the person is entirely at peace with their uniqueness, while outside observers might struggle to comprehend or accept these differences, illuminating the complexities of identity and social perception.
Themes
Self-AcceptanceEccentricityIdentityPerceptionUniqueness
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech about embracing one's individuality.
More from Saul Bellow
All quotes βWhen we ask for advice, we are usually looking for an accomplice.
Saul BellowRead
In 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
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As nonhuman animals, plants, and even 'inanimate' rivers once spoke to our oral ancestors, so the ostensibly βinertβ letters on the page now speak to us! This is a form of animism that we take for granted, but it is animism nonetheless - as mysterious as a talking stone.
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Anyone who has lost something they thought was theirs forever finally comes to realise that nothing really belongs to them.
Paulo CoelhoRead
BRAIN, n. An apparatus with which we think that we think. That which distinguishes the man who is content to be something from the man who wishes to do something. A man of great wealth, or one who has been pitchforked into high station, has commonly such a headful of brain that his neighbors cannot keep their hats on. In our civilization, and under our republican form of government, brain is so highly honored that it is rewarded by exemption from the cares of office.
Ambrose BierceRead
The main conclusion arrived at in this work, namely that man is descended from some lowly-organised form, will, I regret to think, be highly distasteful to many persons. But there can hardly be a doubt that we are descended from barbarians.
Charles DarwinRead