Leo Rosten

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

“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.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

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

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

“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.”

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

“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.”

“Hope is ambiguous, but fear is precious.”

“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.”

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

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

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

“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.”

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

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

“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.”