Leo Rosten > Quotes

“O, to be sure, we laugh less and play less and wear uncomfortable disguises like adults, but beneath the costume is the child we always are, whose needs are simple, whose daily life is still best described by fairy tales.”
― Leo Rosten

“The purpose of life is not to be happy—but to matter, to be productive, to be useful, to have it make some difference that you lived at all.”
― Leo Rosten

“I learned that it is the weak who are cruel, and that gentleness is to be expected only from the strong.”
― Leo Rosten, Captain Newman, M.D.

“The only reason for being a professional writer is that you can't help it.”
― Leo Rosten

“People say: idle curiosity. The one thing that curiosity cannot be is idle.”
― Leo Rosten

“Anybody who hates dogs and babies can't be all bad.”
― Leo Rosten

“You can understand and relate to most people better if you look at them - no matter how old or impressive they may be - as if they are children. For most of us never really grow up or mature all that much - we simply grow taller. O, to be sure, we laugh less and play less and wear uncomfortable disguises like adults, but beneath the costume is the child we always are, whose needs are simple, whose daily life is still best described by fairy tales.”
― Leo Rosten

“If you're going to do something wrong, at least enjoy it.”
― Leo Rosten

“Words must surely be counted among the most powerful drugs man ever invented. ”
― Leo Rosten

“Everyone, in some small sacred sanctuary of the self, is nuts.”
― Leo 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.”
― Leo Rosten

“Happiness comes only when we push our brains and hearts to the farthest reaches of which we are capable.”
― Leo Rosten

“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? … The purpose of life is to matter, to be productive, to have it make some difference that you lived at all.”
― Leo Rosten

“A conservative is one who admires radicals centuries after they're dead.”
― Leo 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 Rosten

“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

“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 Rosten

“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

“Everyone, in some small sacred sanctuary of the self, is nuts. -Leo Rosten”
― Leo Rosten

“Hope is ambiguous, but fear is precious.”
― 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 honorable, 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 Rosten

“The only reason for being a professional writer is that you just can't help it.”
― Leo Rosten

“Writing after the Holocaust had destroyed a third of the world’s Jews, Yiddish poet Kadia Molodowsky (1894–1975) addressed the “Chosen People” doctrine most poignantly: “O God of Mercy,” she wrote, “For the time being / Choose another people.”
― Leo Rosten, The New Joys of Yiddish: Completely Updated

“An official brought the chief rabbi of a town before the Court of the Inquisition and told him, “We will leave the fate of your people to God. I’m putting two slips of paper in this box. On one is written ‘Guilty.’ On the other is written ‘Innocent.’ Draw.” Now this inquisitor was known to seek the slaughter of all the Jews, and he had written “Guilty” on both pieces of paper. The rabbi put his hand inside the box, withdrew a slip of paper—and swallowed it. “What are you doing?” cried the inquisitor. “How will the court know—” “That’s simple,” said the rabbi. “Examine the slip that’s in the box. If it reads ‘Innocent,’ then the paper I swallowed obviously must have read ‘Guilty.’ But if the paper in the box reads ‘Guilty,’ then the one I swallowed must have read ‘Innocent.”
― Leo Rosten, The New Joys of Yiddish: Completely Updated

“Everyone, in some small secret sanctuary of the self, is nuts.”
― Leo Rosten

“It was at this point, visualizing too vividly another Mr. Kaplan in the class, that anxious little lines had crept around Mr. Parkhill´s eyes.”
― Leo Rosten, The Education of Hyman Kaplan

“Why do the wicked always form groups, whereas the righteous do not? Because the wicked, walking in darkness, need company, but the righteous, who live in the light, do not fear being alone.”
― Leo Rosten, The New Joys of Yiddish: Completely Updated

“give a noun.” “Door,” said Mr. Kaplan, smiling. It seemed to Mr. Parkhill that “door” had been given only a moment earlier, by Miss Mitnick. “Y-es,” said Mr. Parkhill. “Er—and another noun?” “Another door,” Mr. Kaplan replied promptly. Mr. Parkhill put him down as a doubtful “C.” Everything pointed to the fact that Mr. Kaplan might have to be kept on an extra three months before he was ready for promotion to Composition, Grammar, and Civics, with Miss Higby. One night Mrs. Moskowitz read a sentence, from “English for Beginners,”
― Leo Rosten, The Education of Hyman Kaplan

“If God lived on earth,” goes a sardonic Yiddish saying, “people would knock out all His windows.”
― Leo Rosten, The New Joys of Yiddish: Completely Updated

“For twenty years Mr. Sokoloff had been eating at the same restaurant on Second Avenue. On this night, as on every other, Mr. Sokoloff ordered chicken soup. The waiter set it down and started off. Mr. Sokoloff called, “Waiter!” “Yeah?” “Please taste this soup.” The waiter said, “Hanh? Twenty years you’ve been eating the chicken soup here, no? Have you ever had a bad plate—” “Waiter,” Sokoloff said firmly, “taste the soup.” “Sokoloff, what’s the matter with you?” “Taste the soup!” “All right, all right,” the waiter said, grimacing. “I’ll taste—where’s the spoon?” “Aha!” cried Sokoloff.”
― Leo Rosten, The New Joys of Yiddish: Completely Updated