(To his armorbearer) “Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised men come and thrust me through and abuse me.” - Saul Bellow

Not that life should end is so terrible in itself, but that it should end with so many disappointments in the essential.

We never learn anything, never in the world, and in spite of all the history books written. They’re just the way we plead or ague with ourselves about it, but it’s only light from the outside that we’re supposed to take inside. If we can. There’s a regular warehouse of fine suggestions and if we’re not better it isn’t because there aren’t plenty of marvelous and true ideas to draw on, but because our vanity weighs more than all of them put together.

My God! Who is this creature? It considers itself human.