“Everybody needs his memories. They keep the wolf of insignificance from the door.”

—  Saul Bellow , book Mr. Sammler's Planet

Mr. Sammler's Planet (1970) [Penguin Classics, 2004, ISBN 0-142-43783-2], p. 156
General sources

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Oct. 3, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Everybody needs his memories. They keep the wolf of insignificance from the door." by Saul Bellow?
Saul Bellow photo
Saul Bellow 103
Canadian-born American writer 1915–2005

Related quotes

George Washington Plunkitt photo

“You can’t be patriotic on a salary that just keeps the wolf from the door. p. 56”

George Washington Plunkitt (1842–1924) New York State Senator

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 13, On Municipal Ownership

“We cannot keep thieves from looking in at our windows, but we need not give them entertainment with open doors.”

Thomas Adam (1701–1784) clergyman, religious writer

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 582.

Farley Mowat photo

“And this is what happened, ands this is why the caribou and the wolf are one; for the caribou feeds the wolf, but it is the wolf that keeps the caribou strong.”

Farley Mowat (1921–2014) Canadian author and environmentalist

“But keep the wolf far thence, that's foe to men,
For with his nails he'll dig them up again.”

John Webster The White Devil

Act V, scene iv.
The White Devil (1612)

Martin Scorsese photo

“Movies touch our hearts, and awaken our vision, and change the way we see things. They take us to other places. They open doors and minds. Movies are the memories of our lifetime. We need to keep them alive.”

Martin Scorsese (1942) American film director, screenwriter, producer and actor

"The Film Foundation Main page".

Rudyard Kipling photo

“Now this is the Law of the Jungle—as old and as true as the sky;
And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the Wolf that shall break it must die.”

Rudyard Kipling book The Second Jungle Book

The Law of the Jungle, Stanzas 1 and 2.
The Second Jungle Book (1895)
Context: p>Now this is the Law of the Jungle—as old and as true as the sky;
And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the Wolf that shall break it must die.As the creeper that girdles the tree trunk, the Law runneth forward and back;
For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.</p

Thom Yorke photo

“I keep the wolf from the door
But he calls me up
Calls me on the phone
Tells me all the ways that he's gonna mess me up
Steal all my children
If I don't pay the ransom
And I'll never see 'em again
If I squeal to the cops”

Thom Yorke (1968) English musician, philanthropist and singer-songwriter

"A Wolf at the Door"
Lyrics, Hail to the Thief (2003)

“Is there some kind of rule for when Sam should be a boy and when he's a Wolf?"
"A Wolf lifts his leg and yellows up the snow. A boy has to use the toilet."
"And that will work?"
"Only if he needs to pee.”

Anne Bishop book Written in Red

Source: Written in Red

Hilaire Belloc photo

“Torture will give a dozen pence or more
To keep a drab from bawling at his door.
The public taste is quite a different thing—
Torture is positively paid to sing.”

Hilaire Belloc (1870–1953) writer

"On Torture: A Public Singer"
Sonnets and Verse (1938)

Vladimir Nabokov photo

“Literature was not born the day when a boy crying "wolf, wolf" came running out of the Neanderthal valley with a big gray wolf at his heels; literature was born on the day when a boy came crying "wolf, wolf" and there was no wolf behind him.”

Vladimir Nabokov book Lectures on Literature

Source: Lectures on Literature

Related topics