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Through the air on the flying trapeze, his mind hummed. Amusing it was, astoundingly funny. A trapeze to God, or to nothing, a flying trapeze to some sort of eternity; he prayed objectively for strength to make the flight with grace.

— William Saroyan The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze (1934)

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More quotes by 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.

The Flashing Dragonfly (1973)

Everybody has to die, but I always believed an exception would be made in my case. Now what?

He wanted to be a passenger on anything that was going anywhere, but most of all on a ship.

The writer is a spiritual anarchist, as in the depth of his soul every man is.

The William Saroyan Reader (1958)

I believe there are ways whose ends are life instead of death.

Inhale and Exhale (1936)

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Most intellectual people do not believe in God, but they fear him just the same.

Wilhelm Reich Philosophy : An Introduction to the Art of Wondering (2005)

When the mind is not dissipated upon extraneous things, nor diffused over the world about us through the senses, it withdraws within itself, and of its own accord ascends to the contemplation of God.

Basil of Caesarea

Once you accept the existence of God — however you define him, however you explain your relationship to him — then you are caught forever with his presence in the center of all things.

Morris West The Clowns of God (1981)

God seeks comrades and claims love,
the Devil seeks slaves and claims obedience.

Rabindranath Tagore Fireflies (1928)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: William Saroyan (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.