William Saroyan
William Saroyan (31 August 1908 - 18 May 1981) was an Armenian American author, famous for his novel The Human Comedy (1943), and other works dealing with the comedies and tragedies of everyday existence.
Found 47 thoughts of William Saroyan
The basic truth of all things, as nearly as we may ever dream of determining and knowing this truth, is form, that which is, as it is. The way and shape of the thing no less than the thing itself.
William Saroyan
Seek goodness everywhere, and when it is found, bring it out of its hiding place and let be free and unashamed.
William Saroyan
Three times in my life I have been captured: by the orphanage, by school, and by the Army. But I'm mistaken. The fact is I was captured only once, when I was born, only that capture is also setting free, which is what this is actually all about. The free prisoner.
William Saroyan
I looked, I saw, I understood, I felt, "That's that, where do we go from here?
William Saroyan
A growing thing whose stages of growth always went unnoticed ...
William Saroyan
San Francisco itself is art, above all literary art. Every block is a short story, every hill a novel. Every home a poem, every dweller within immortal. That is the whole truth.
William Saroyan
The streets made me, and the streets stink, but I love them, for I was born in them out of flesh and I was born in them out of spirit.
William Saroyan
There could be no extreme vanity in my recognition of myself, if in fact there could be any at all.
William Saroyan
This transformation in kids - from flashing dragonflies, so to say, to sticky water-surface worms slowly slipping downstream - is noticed with pride by society and with mortification by God ...
William Saroyan
Encourage virtue in whatever heart it may have been driven into secrecy and sorrow by the shame and terror of the world.
William Saroyan
Whoever the kid had been, whoever had had the grand attitude, has finally heeded the admonishment of parents, teachers, governments, religions, and the law: "You just change your attitude now please, young man."
William Saroyan
Every man in the world is better than someone else and not as good as someone else.
William Saroyan
He paints for the blind, and we are the blind, and he lets us see for sure what we saw long ago but weren't sure we saw. He paints for the dead, to remind us that -- great good God, think of it -- we're alive ...
William Saroyan
I was never interested in the obvious, or in the details one takes for granted, and everybody seemed to be addicted to the obvious, being astonished by it, and forever harping about the details which I had long ago weighted, measured, and discarded as irrelevant and useless.
William Saroyan
They understand matter, not spirit. And you and I live in spirit.
William Saroyan
Are we sure it is desirable for a man's spirit not to be at war with itself, or that it is better to be serene and ready to go to dinner than to be excited and unwilling to stop for a cup of coffee, even?
William Saroyan
If you can measure it, don't. If you can weigh it, it isn't worth the bother. It isn't what you're after. It isn't going to get it.
William Saroyan
I don't like to see kids throw away their truth just because it isn't worth a dime in the open market.
William Saroyan
Good people are good because they've come to wisdom through failure. We get very little wisdom from success, you know.
William Saroyan
He wanted to be a passenger on anything that was going anywhere, but most of all on a ship.
William Saroyan
Ignore the obvious, for it is unworthy of the clear eye and the kindly heart.
William Saroyan
I see death as a private event, the destruction of the universe in the brain and in the senses of man, and I cannot see any man's death as a contributing factor in the success or failure of a military campaign.
William Saroyan
The greatest happiness you can have is knowing that you do not necessarily require happiness.
William Saroyan
