William Saroyan Quotes

Quotes about:

• I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.

  William Saroyan

  Prayer, War, Home

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  130 Copy quote

• In the time of your life, live—so that in that wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the infinite delight and mystery of it."

  William Saroyan

  Life, Sorrow, Add

  William Saroyan (2009). “The Time of Your Life”, p.3, A&C Black

  86 Copy quote

• Try as much as possible to be wholly alive, with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell and when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.

  William Saroyan

  Motivational, Death, Anger

  William Saroyan (1934). “The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze, and Other Stories”, p.13, New Directions Publishing

  83 Copy quote

• In the end, today is forever, yesterday is still today, and tomorrow is already today.

  William Saroyan

  Yesterday, Forever, Today

  William Saroyan (1968). “I used to believe I had forever, now I'm not so sure”

  64 Copy quote

• It is simply in the nature of Armenian to study, to learn, to question, to speculate, to discover, to invent, to revise, to restore, to preserve, to make, and to give.

  William Saroyan

  Giving, Study, Armenians

  "First Visit to Armenia". Book by William Saroyan, 1935.

  75 Copy quote

• In the time of your life, live - so that in that good time there shall be no ugliness or death for yourself or for any life your life touches. Seek goodness everywhere, and when it is found, bring it out of its hiding-place and let it be free and unashamed...In the time of your life, live - so that in that wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the infinite delight and mystery of it.

  William Saroyan

  Sorrow, Add, Delight

  The Time of Your Life (1939)

  31 Copy quote

• Unless a man has pity he is not truly a man. If a man has not wept at the worlds pain he is only half a man, and there will always be pain in the world, knowing this does not mean that a man shall dispair. A good man will seek to take pain out of things. A foolish man will not even notice it, except in himself, and the poor unfortunate evil man will drive pain deeper into things and spread it about wherever he goes.

  William Saroyan

  Pain, Mean, Men

  73 Copy quote

• Good people are good because they've come to wisdom through failure.

  William Saroyan

  Inspirational, Motivational, Wisdom

  62 Copy quote

• Everybody has got to die, but I have always believed an exception would be made in my case.

  William Saroyan

  Inspiration, Would Be, Famous Last Words

  William Saroyan, William E. Justice (2008). “He flies through the air with the greatest of ease: a William Saroyan reader”, Heyday Books

  34 Copy quote

• Everything alive is part of each of us, and many things which do not move as we move are part of us. The sun is part of us, the earth, the sky, the stars, the rivers, and the oceans. All things are part of us, and we have come here to enjoy them and to thank God for them.

  William Saroyan

  Stars, Moving, Ocean

  "The Human Comedy". Book by William Saroyan, 1943.

  4 Copy quote

• The greatest happiness you can have is knowing that you do not necessarily require happiness.

  William Saroyan

  Happiness, Gratitude, Cheer

  41 Copy quote

• We get very little wisdom from success, you know.

  William Saroyan

  Congratulations, Wisdom Experience, Sobriety

  "My Heart's in the Highlands". Book by William Saroyan, 1939.

  6 Copy quote

• The role of art is to make a world which can be inhabited.

  William Saroyan

  Art, Roles, World

  Broadway memorial tribute to Saroyan, reported in The New York Times, October 31, 1983.

  52 Copy quote

• Be grateful for yourself...be thankful.

  William Saroyan

  Gratitude, Grateful, Being Thankful

  71 Copy quote

• Art is what is irresistible.

  William Saroyan

  Art, Art Is, Irresistible

  "The End of the Mannerist Century". Book by William Saroyan, "The Pleasure of Modernist Music" by Ashby Arved, 2004.

  4 Copy quote

• You must remember always to give, of everything you have. You must give foolishly even. You must be extravagant. You must give to all who come into your life. Then nothing and no one shall have power to cheat you of anything, for if you give to a thief, he cannot steal from you, and he himself is then no longer a thief. And the more you give, the more you will have to give.

  William Saroyan

  Giving, Thieves, Remember

  "The Human Comedy". Book by The Human Comedy, 1943.

  5 Copy quote

• Genius is play, and man's capacity for achieving genius is infinite, and many may achieve genius only through play.

  William Saroyan

  Men, Play, Genius

  "Three Times Three". Book by William Saroyan, 1936.

  12 Copy quote

• Although I write in English, and despite the fact that I'm from America, I consider myself an Armenian writer. The words I use are in English, the surroundings I write about are American, but the soul, which makes me write, is Armenian. This means I am an Armenian writer and deeply love the honor of being a part of the family of Armenian wrtiters.

  William Saroyan

  Writing, Mean, America

  49 Copy quote

• Seek goodness everywhere, and when it is found, bring it out of its hiding-place and let it be free and unashamed. Place in matter and in flesh the least of the values, for these are things that hold death and must pass away. Discover in all things that which shines and is beyond corruption. Encourage virtue in whatever heart it may have been driven into secrecy and sorrow by the shame and terror of the world.

  William Saroyan

  Heart, Shining, Sorrow

  Eugene O'Neill, Maxwell Anderson, Sidney Coe Howard, DuBose Heyward, Elmer Rice (1988). “Famous American plays of the 1920s and the 1930s”

  35 Copy quote

• Love doesn't have to be perfect. Even perfect, it is still the best thing there is, for the simple reason that it is the most common and constant truth of all, of all life, all law and order, the very thing which holds everything together, which permits everything to move along in time and be its wonderful or ordinary self.

  William Saroyan

  Love, Moving, Simple

  20 Copy quote

• I have always been a Laugher, disturbing people who are not laughers, upsetting whole audiences at theatres... I laugh, that's all. I love to laugh. Laugher to me is being alive. I have had rotten times, and I have laughed through them. Even in the midst of the very worst times I have laughed.

  William Saroyan

  Laughing, People, Upset

  William Saroyan (1976). “Sons come and go, mothers hang in forever”, McGraw-Hill Companies

  60 Copy quote

• Remember that every man is a variation of yourself

  William Saroyan

  Men, Variation, Remember

  William Saroyan (2009). “The Time of Your Life”, p.3, A&C Black

  17 Copy quote

• But who can speak to God, or rather who can't? The question is, who can get an answer?

  William Saroyan

  God, Answers, Speak

  15 Copy quote

• When I began to wait to live I really began to wait to die.

  William Saroyan

  Waiting, Dies

  William Saroyan (1967). “Short Drive, Sweet Chariot”

  12 Copy quote

• I do not know what makes a writer, but it probably isn't happiness.

  William Saroyan

  Writing, Veterinarian, Knows

  William Saroyan, William E. Justice (2008). “He flies through the air with the greatest of ease: a William Saroyan reader”, Heyday Books

  56 Copy quote

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