Leo Rosten

“Extremists think 'communication' means agreeing with them.”

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

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

“First-rate people hire first-rate people; second-rate people hire third-rate people.”

“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.”

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

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

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

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

“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.”

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

“Humor is the affectionate communication of insight.”

“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.”

“Satire is focused bitterness.”

“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.”

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

“Some things are so unexpected that no one is prepared for them.”

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

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

“Truth is stranger than fiction; fiction has to make sense.”