Leo Rosten Quotes - Page 2

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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.

  Leo Rosten

  Philosophical, Heart, Sight

  63 Copy quote

• I sometimes think there is a dimension beyond the four of experience and Einstein: insight, that fifth dimension which promises to liberate us from bondage to the long, imperfect past

  Leo Rosten

  Past, Thinking, Long

  Leo Rosten (1978). “Passions & Prejudices: Or, Some of My Best Friends are People”

  17 Copy quote

• You can learn much about life from a checker game: surrender one to take two; don't make two moves at one time; move up, not down; and when you reach the top, you may move as you like.

  Leo Rosten

  Life, Moving, Learning

  9 Copy quote

• Happiness, in the ancient, noble sense, means self-fulfillment—and is given to those who use to the fullest whatever talents God … bestowed upon them.

  Leo Rosten

  Mean, Self, Noble

  4 Copy quote

• Some things are so unexpected that no one is prepared for them.

  Leo Rosten

  Future, Unexpected, Prepared

  Leo Calvin Rosten (1972). “Rome wasn't burned in a day: the mischief of language”

  7 Copy quote

• 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.

  Leo Rosten

  Different, Want, Understood

  Leo Rosten (2013). “The Return of Hyman Kaplan”, p.13, Hachette UK

  11 Copy quote

• People say: idle curiosity. The one thing that curiosity cannot be is idle.

  Leo Rosten

  People, Curiosity, Idle

  7 Copy quote

• First-rate people hire first-rate people; second-rate people hire third-rate people.

  Leo Rosten

  Business, People, Firsts

  8 Copy quote

• Where was it ever promised us that life on this earth can ever be easy, free from conflict and uncertainty, devoid of anguish and wonder and pain? Those who seek the folly of unrelieved 'happiness'-who fear moods, who shun solitude, who do not know the diginity of occasional depression-can find bliss easily enough: in tranquilizing pills, or in senility. The purpose of life is not to be happy.

  Leo Rosten

  Pain, Solitude, Meaning Of Life

  7 Copy quote

• The hardest part of growing up is learning how to wait

  Leo Rosten

  Growing Up, Inspiration, Waiting

  5 Copy quote

• 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 Rosten

  Time, Laughter, Thinking

  Leo Calvin Rosten (1959). “The return of H*y*m*a*n K*a*p*l*a*n”

  7 Copy quote

• Words sing. They hurt. They teach. They sanctify. They were man's first, immeasurable feat of magic. They liberated us from ignorance and our barbarous past.

  Leo Rosten

  Hurt, Ignorance, Past

  Leo Calvin Rosten (1964). “The Many Worlds of L*e*o R*o*s*t*e*n: Stories, Humor, Social Commentary, Travelogues, Satire, Memoirs, Profiles, and Sundry Entertainments Never Before Published; with a Special Introd., Background Notes, Revelations and Confessions, All Hand-written and Themselves Worth the Price of Admission”

  5 Copy quote

• The first printed mention of bagels... is to be found in the Community Regulations of Kracow, Poland, for the year 1610 which stated that bagels would be given as a gift to any woman in childbirth.

  Leo Rosten

  Food, Years, Community

  74 Copy quote

• A conservative is one who admires radicals centuries after they're dead.

  Leo Rosten

  Political, Definitions, Politics

  "The Modern Handbook of Humor". Book by Ralph Woods, 1967.

  15 Copy quote

• If you are going to do something wrong, at least enjoy it.

  Leo Rosten

  Enjoy, Enjoyment, Ifs

  14 Copy quote

• When in trouble, mumble.

  Leo Rosten

  Advice, Trouble

  7 Copy quote

• The only thing I can say about W. C. Fields ... is this: Any man who hates dogs and babies can't be all bad.

  Leo Rosten

  Dog, Baby, Hate

  Speech at Hollywood dinner in honour of W. C. Fields, 16 February 1939, in 'Saturday Review' 12 June 1976

  7 Copy quote

• Acting is a form of deception, and actors can mesmerize themselves almost as easily as an audience.

  Leo Rosten

  Deception, Acting, Actors

  4 Copy quote

• Every writer is a narcissist. This does not mean that he is vain; it only means that he is hopelessly self-absorbed.

  Leo Rosten

  Writing, Mean, Self

  8 Copy quote

• 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.

  Leo Rosten

  Fear, Book, Dark

  Leo Calvin Rosten (1959). “The return of H*y*m*a*n K*a*p*l*a*n”

  7 Copy quote

• The only reason for being a professional writer is that you can't help it.

  Leo Rosten

  Writing, Story Writers, Helping

  9 Copy quote

• I came to believe it not true that "the coward dies a thousand deaths, the brave man only one." I think it is the other way around: It is the brave who die a thousand deaths. For it is imagination, and not just conscience, which doth make cowards of us all. Those who do not know fear are not truly brave.

  Leo Rosten

  Believe, Men, Thinking

  4 Copy quote

• Satire is focused bitterness.

  Leo Rosten

  Bitterness, Bitter, Satire

  Leo Calvin Rosten (1964). “The Many Worlds of L*e*o R*o*s*t*e*n: Stories, Humor, Social Commentary, Travelogues, Satire, Memoirs, Profiles, and Sundry Entertainments Never Before Published; with a Special Introd., Background Notes, Revelations and Confessions, All Hand-written and Themselves Worth the Price of Admission”

  8 Copy quote

• There was no answer, no solution, no sop, no deliverance. What, then, did I do? I read faster.

  Leo Rosten

  Book, Reading, Answers

  4 Copy quote

• Why did God give me two ears and one mouth? So that I will hear more and talk less.

  Leo Rosten

  Two, Giving, Ears

  12 Copy quote

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