Associate with the noblest people you can find; read the best books; live with the mighty; but learn to be happy alone.
Saul BellowRead
Nobody asks you to love the whole world, only to be honest, ehrlich. Don't have a loud mouth. The more you love people the more they'll mix you up. A child loves, a person respects. Respect is better than love.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of honesty and respect in relationships over unconditional love.
Saul Bellow's quote suggests that while love can be a powerful emotion, it is honesty and respect that create a more stable foundation in relationships. He implies that loving too freely can lead to confusion and misunderstandings, whereas respect fosters deeper connections and clearer interactions. The distinction between the love of a child and the respect of a mature individual highlights the necessity of developing healthy relationships grounded in mutual regard rather than just affection.
Themes
HonestyRespectLoveRelationshipsUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a workshop about building healthy relationships.
More from Saul Bellow
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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?
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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.'
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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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