William Saroyan Quotes

Encourage virtue in whatever heart it may have been driven into secrecy and sorrow by the shame and terror of the world.

To be free from evil thoughts is God's best gift.

Goodness does not consist in greatness, but greatness in goodness.

The man who in this world can keep the whiteness of his soul is not likely to lose it in any other.

Virtue could see to do what Virtue would by her own radiant light, though sun and moon where in the flat sea sunk.

As long as I'm a good person and I do things from the heart, that's all that matters.

I see you're a man with ideals. I better be going before you've still got them.

Good human qualities-honesty, sincerity, a good heart-cannot be bought with money, nor can they be produced my machines, but only by the mind itself. We can call this the inner light, or God's blessing, or human qualitity. This is the essence of mankind.

Divine life is basically the inner freedom to choose the right and the good spontaneously.

Freedom of speech means nothing to a people who are too weak in their convictions to speak out against the evil that is eating at the heart of the nation like a cancer.

Do good to another man, even when they do not do you good; another will certainly do you good. if there is still shame and fear in one's heart to do good, there will certainly be no progress at all.

True goodness is like the glow-worm in this, that it shines most when no eyes except those of heaven are upon it.

There is always a light within us that is free from all sorrow and grief, no matter how much we may be experiencing suffering.

All of the goodness in the world doesn't amount to a hill of beans without courage

God is letting me shine, because I've got a good heart.

To bow to the fact of our life's sorrows and betrayals is to accept them; and from this deep gesture we discover that all life is workable. As we learn to bow, we discover that the heart holds more freedom and compassion than we could imagine.

Goodness, Truth and Beauty come first

Goodness is, so to speak, itself; badness is only spoiled goodness. And there must be something good first before it can be spoiled.

My heart contains of good, wise, just, the perfect shape.

Obedience allows God’s blessings to flow without constraint. He will bless His obedient children with freedom from bondage and misery. And He will bless them with more light.

Virtue treads paths that end not in the grave.

How delicious to corrupt, to stifle all semblances of virtue and religion in that young heart!

Moral courage is the highest expression of humanity.

From my spirit's gray defeat, From my pulse's flagging beat, From my hopes that turned to sand Sifting through my close-clenched hand, From my own fault's slavery, If I can sing, I still am free. For with my singing I can make A refuge for my spirit's sake, A house of shining words, to be My fragile immortality.

I would rather starve and rot and keep the privilege of speaking the truth as I see it, than of holding all the offices that capital has to give from the presidency down.