Leo Rosten Quotes

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.

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

If at first you don't succeed, before you try again, stop to figure out what you did wrong.

I learned that it is the weak who are cruel, and that gentleness is to be expected only from the strong.

Extremists think 'communication' means agreeing with them.

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.

Money can't buy happiness, but neither can poverty.

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

Where there is too much, something is missing.

Thinking is harder work than hard work.

Words must surely be counted among the most powerful drugs man ever invented.

Everyone, in some small sacred sanctuary of the self, is nuts.

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 has given you for the betterment of others.

The fellow who laughs last may laugh best, but he gets the reputation of being very slow-witted.

Courage is the capacity to confront what can be imagined.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, please paint me the Gettysburg Address.

Humor is the affectionate communication of insight.

Machines certainly can solve problems, store information, correlate, and play games - but not with pleasure.

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.

What's green, hangs on a wall and whistles? [A Herring]

The purpose of life is not to be happy, the purpose of life is to matter.

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.

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

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 men never mature; they simply grow taller.

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.