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

An angel is a spiritual creature created by God without a body for the service of Christendom and the church.
Leo Rosten

Any man who hates dogs and babies can't be all bad.
Leo Rosten

Courage is the capacity to confront what can be imagined.
Leo Rosten

Extremists think "communication" means agreeing with them.
Leo Rosten

First-rate people hire first-rate people; second-rate people hire third-rate people.
Leo Rosten

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

Humor is the affectionate communication of insight.
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


I never cease being dumbfounded by the unbelievable things people believe.
Leo Rosten

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

Satire is focused bitterness.
Leo Rosten

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

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

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

Truth is stranger than fiction; fiction has to make sense.
Leo Rosten

We see things as we are, not as they are.
Leo Rosten

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