Leo Rosten Quotes

58 quotes in 716 categories

• We see things as we are, not as they are.
• The purpose of life is not to be happy, the purpose of life is to matter..
• Every writer is a narcissist. This does not mean that he is vain; it only means that he is hopelessly self-absorbed.
• If you are going to do something wrong, at least enjoy it.
• 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…
• You understand people better if you look at them-no matter how old or impressive or important they may be-as if they were children. For most…
• 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.
• 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…
• Dogs are getting bigger, according to a leading dog manufacturer.
• The love of money is the source of an enormous amount of good; the fact that the good is a by-product of the selfish pursuit…
• Satire is focused bitterness.
• 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…
• There was no answer, no solution, no sop, no deliverance. What, then, did I do? I read faster.
• The fellow who laughs last may laugh best, but he gets the reputation of being very slow-witted.
• Her cooking suggested she had attended the Cordon Noir.
• The purpose of life is to matter, to be productive, to have it make a difference that you lived at all-using the talents that God…
• Hope is ambiguous, but fear is precious.
• If at first you don't succeed, before you try again, stop to figure out what you did wrong.
• 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…
• The hardest part of growing up is learning how to wait

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