Famous Leo Rosten Quotations

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"Proverbs often contradict one another, as any reader soon discovers. The sagacity that advises us to look before we leap promptly warns us that if we hesitate we are lost; that absence makes the heart grow fonder, but out of sight, out of mind."
by Leo Rosten
"Humor is the affectionate communication of insight."
by Leo C. Rosten
"In the dark colony of night, when I consider man's magnificent capacity for malice, madness, folly, envy, rage, and destructiveness, and I wonder whether we shall not end up as breakfast for newts and polyps, I seem to hear the muffled cries of all the words in all the books with covers closed."
by Leo C. Rosten
"Satire is focused bitterness."
by Leo C. Rosten
"A conservative is one who admires radicals centuries after they're dead."
by Leo C. Rosten
"A writer writes not because he is educated but because he is driven by the need to communicate. Behind the need to communicate is the need to share. Behind the need to share is the need to be understood. The writer wants to be understood much more than he wants to be respected or praised or even loved. And that perhaps, is what makes him different from others."
by Leo C. Rosten
"Acting is a form of deception, and actors can mesmerize themselves almost as easily as an audience."
by Leo Rosten
"Courage is the capacity to comfront what can be imagined...."
by Leo C. Rosten
"Every writer is a narcissist. This does not mean that he is vain it only means that he is hopelessly self-absorbed."
by Leo C. Rosten
"Extremists think 'communication' means agreeing with them."
by Leo Rosten
"For some not to be martyrs is martyrdom indeed."
by Leo Rosten
"Happiness comes only when we push our brains and hearts to the farthest reaches of which we are capable."
by Leo C. Rosten
"Humor is, I think, the subtlest and chanciest of literary forms. It is surely not accidental that there are a thousand novelists, essayists, poets or journalists for each humorist. It is a long, long time between James Thurbers."
by Leo C. Rosten
"I cannot believe that the purpose of life is (merely) to be happy. I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate. I think it is above all to matter, to count, to stand for something. To have it make some difference that you lived at all."
by Leo Rosten
"I learned that it is the weak who are cruel, and that gentleness is to be expected only from the strong."
by Leo Rosten
"I never cease being dumbfounded by the unbelievable things people believe."
by Leo Rosten
"I never cease being dumbfounded by the unbelievable things people believe"
by Leo Rosten
"If you are going to do something wrong at least enjoy it."
by Leo Rosten
"Most men do not mature, they simply grow taller."
by Leo Rosten
"The only reason for being a professional writer is that you can't help it."
by Leo Rosten
"We see things as we are, not as they are."
by Leo Rosten
"Courage is the capacity to confirm what can be imagined."
by Leo Rosten
"If you are going to do something wrong, at least enjoy it."
by Leo Rosten
"Humor is, I think, the sublets and chanciest of literary forms. It is surely not accidental that there are a thousand novelists, essayists, poets or journalists for each humorist. It is a long, long time between James Thurbers"
by Leo Rosten
"I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be happy. I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate. It is, above all to matter, to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all."
by Leo Rosten
"Truth is stranger than fiction; fiction has to make sense."
by Leo Rosten


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