Quotes by Rosten, Leo




Leo Calvin Rosten (April 11, 1908February 19, 1997) was an American teacher, academic and humorist best remembered for his stories about the night-school "prodigy" Hyman Kaplan (first published in The New Yorker in the 1930s, and later reprinted in two volumesThe Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N and The Return of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N, under the pseudonym Leonard Q. Ross), and for The Joys of Yiddishan excellent guide to the language and to Jewish culture (as well as a great source for anecdotes and Jewish humour)..

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

Rosten, Leo on joy    Share


"Humor is the affectionate communication of insight."

Rosten, Leo on humor    Share

"Humor is, I think, the sublets and chanciest of literary forms. It is surely not accidental that there are a thousand novelists, essayists, poets or journalists for each humorist. It is a long, long time between James Thurbers"

Rosten, Leo on humor    Share

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

Rosten, Leo on appearance
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"Satire is focused bitterness."

Rosten, Leo on sarcasm    Share

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

Rosten, Leo on belief    Share

"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 shall not end up as breakfast for newts and polyps, I seem to hear the muffled cries of all the words in all the books with covers closed."

Rosten, Leo on books - reading    Share

"Truth is stranger than fiction; fiction has to make sense."

Rosten, Leo on truth    Share

"Every writer is a narcissist. This does not mean that he is vain; it only means that he is hopelessly self-absorbed."

Rosten, Leo on writers and writing    Share

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

Rosten, Leo on writers and writing    Share

"Extremists think communication means agreeing with them."

Rosten, Leo on communication    Share

"Courage is the capacity to confirm what can be imagined."

Rosten, Leo on courage    Share

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