Good people are good because they’ve come to wisdom through failure. – William Saroyan
I think it would be more accurate to say they’ve come to wisdom by learning from their failures. Or listening to what life’s trying to teach through the failures.
The problem with this quote is that the word “failure” is too synonymous with business or commercial failures in our culture. I think a more accurate term, more Real Joeish, would be “troubles.” Or “suffering.” Both, maybe. “Trouble” and “pain” can be random – like my wife’s tumor or my daughter’s Scoliosis. “Suffering” is our mistaken response to trouble and pain.
So it seems like a more accurate quote would be: Good people are good because they’ve come to wisdom through the pain and troubles that life’s put in front of them. –