As for types like my own, ...

As for types like my own, obscurely motivated by the conviction that our existence was worthless if we didn't make a turning point of it, we were assigned to the humanities, to poetry, philosophy, painting - the nursery games of humankind, which had to be left behind when the age of science began. The humanities would be called upon to choose a wallpaper for the crypt, as the end drew near.
 Saul Bellow

Quotes from the same author

There are evils that have the ability to survive identification and go on for ever... money, for instance, or war.
 Saul Bellow
If women are expected to do the same work as men, we must teach them the same things.
 Saul Bellow
A man should be able to hear, and to bear, the worst that could be said of him.
 Saul Bellow
The secret motive of the absent-minded is to be innocent while guilty. Absent-mindedness is spurious innocence.
 Saul Bellow
I seem to have the blind self-acceptance of the eccentric who can't conceive that his eccentricities are not clearly understood.
 Saul Bellow