“Anxiety destroys scale, and suffering makes us lose perspective.”

—  Saul Bellow

"The Sealed Treasure" (1960), p. 62
It All Adds Up (1994)

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 "Anxiety destroys scale, and suffering makes us lose perspective." by Saul Bellow?
Saul Bellow photo
Saul Bellow 103
Canadian-born American writer 1915–2005

Related quotes

Alastair Reynolds photo
Zhang Zhaozhong photo

“In the military perspective, fighting is the last resort while before it there must be production on a large scale and with high enthusiasm and large-scale production on the sea.”

Zhang Zhaozhong (1952) Chinese admiral

"China boasts of strategy to “recover” islands occupied by Philippines" in China News https://chinanews.net.au/2013/05/28/china-boasts-of-strategy-to-recover-islands-occupied-by-philippines/ (28 May 2013)

Leonard Cohen photo
Richard Bach photo

“Perspective— Use It or Lose It. If you turned to this page, you're forgetting that what is going on around you is not reality. Think about that.”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Illusions : The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977)

Eric Greitens photo

“Of course fear does not automatically lead to courage. Injury does not necessarily lead to insight. Hardship will not automatically make us better. Pain can break us or make us wiser. Suffering can destroy us or make us stronger. Fear can cripple us, or it can make us more courageous. It is resilience that makes the difference.”

Eric Greitens (1974) American politician, author, and former Navy SEAL

Eric Greitens: How To Became A Resilient Leader https://www.forbes.com/sites/danschawbel/2015/03/10/eric-greitens-how-to-became-a-resilient-leader/#1ee8d8762e54 (March 10, 2015)

Nassim Nicholas Taleb photo

“Forecasting by bureaucrats tends to be used for anxiety relief rather than for adequate policy making.”

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (1960) Lebanese-American essayist, scholar, statistician, former trader and risk analyst

Source: The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable (2007), p. 162

David Livingstone photo

“Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger now and then with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause and cause the spirit to waver and the soul to sink; but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall be revealed in and for us. I never made a sacrifice.”

David Livingstone (1813–1873) Scottish explorer and missionary

Speech to students at Cambridge University (4 December 1857)
Context: People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Can that be called a sacrifice which is simply paid back as a small part of a great debt owing to our God, which we can never repay? Is that a sacrifice which brings its own blest reward in healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter? Away with the word in such a view and with such a thought! It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger now and then with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause and cause the spirit to waver and the soul to sink; but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall be revealed in and for us. I never made a sacrifice.

Jeet Thayil photo

“You may lose something, but you gain a double perspective, a double vision. Especially in terms of writing, or in terms of art, I think it's tremendously useful.”

Jeet Thayil (1959) Indian writer

On the intermingling of cultures
Jeet Thayil on why 'Where are you from?' is a complicated question for all of us

Vasil Bykaŭ photo

“Suffering makes us human. A person without suffering is just grass.”

Vasil Bykaŭ (1924–2003) Belarusian writer

Васіль Быкаў. Трэцяя ракета http://rv-blr.com/literature/charter/11223 // rv-blr.com (in Belarusian)

Jonathan Carroll photo

Related topics