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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.

Leo Rosten

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Leo Rosten
Age: 88 †
Born: 1908
Born: January 1
Died: 1997
Died: January 1
Lexicographer
Linguist
Novelist
Political Scientist
Screenwriter
Writer
Lodz
Leo Calvin Rosten
Best
Whose
Beneath
Play
Laughing
Fairy
Children
Child
Tales
Needs
Sure
Uncomfortable
Disguises
Always
Simple
Daily
Costume
Life
Less
Adults
Costumes
Like
Stills
Wear
Described
Still
Laugh
Disguise

More quotes by Leo Rosten

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Humor is the affectionate communication of insight.
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The love of money is the source of an enormous amount of good the fact that the good is a by-product of the selfish pursuit of riches has nothing to do with its indisputable value.
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What's green, hangs on a wall and whistles? [A Herring]
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The purpose of life is not to be happy, the purpose of life is to matter.
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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.
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The first printed mention of bagels... is to be found in the Community Regulations of Kracow, Poland, for the year 1610 which stated that bagels would be given as a gift to any woman in childbirth.
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Courage is the capacity to confront what can be imagined.
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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.
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If a picture is worth a thousand words, please paint me the Gettysburg Address.
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Humor is, I think, the subtlest 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.
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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.
Leo Rosten
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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
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Acting is a form of deception, and actors can mesmerize themselves almost as easily as an audience.
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If you are going to do something wrong, at least enjoy it.
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The fellow who laughs last may laugh best, but he gets the reputation of being very slow-witted.
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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.
Leo Rosten
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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.
Leo Rosten
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Machines certainly can solve problems, store information, correlate, and play games - but not with pleasure.
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Happiness comes only when we push our brains and hearts to the farthest reaches of which we are capable.
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Where there is too much, something is missing.
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