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Quotes by Leo C. Rosten

A conservative is one who admires radicals centuries after they're dead.
– 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.
– Leo C. Rosten
An angel is a spiritual creature created by God without a body for the service of Christendom and the church.
– Leo C. Rosten
Any man who hates dogs and babies can't be all bad.
– Leo C. Rosten
Courage is the capacity to confirm what can be imagined.
– 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.
– Leo C. Rosten
Extremists think communication means agreeing with them.
– Leo C. Rosten
First-rate people hire first-rate people; second-rate people hire third-rate people.
– Leo C. Rosten
Humor is the affectionate communication of insight.
– 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.
– Leo C. Rosten
I will never give in to old age until I become old. And I'm not old yet!
– Leo C. Rosten
If you are going to do something wrong at least enjoy it.
– Leo C. Rosten
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.
– Leo C. Rosten
Satire is focused bitterness.
– Leo C. Rosten
Some things are so unexpected that no one is prepared for them.
– Leo C. Rosten
Truth is stranger than fiction; fiction has to make sense.
– Leo C. Rosten
We see things as we are, not as they are.
– Leo C. 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.
– Leo C. Rosten
Happiness comes only when we push our brains and hearts to the farthest reaches of which we are capable.
– Leo C. Rosten
Acting is a form of deception, and actors can mesmerize themselves almost as easily as an audience.
– Leo C. Rosten