Quote

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.

Leo Rosten

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Think
Forms
Accidental
Thinking
Laughter
Journalists
Poet
James
Humor
Literary
Thurber
Thousand
Novelists
Subtlest
Form
Poets
Humorist
Long
Journalist
Essayists
Time
Surely
Humorists

More quotes by Leo Rosten

Image
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
Image
You can learn much about life from a checker game: surrender one to take two don't make two moves at one time move up, not down and when you reach the top, you may move as you like.
Leo Rosten
Image
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
Image
Thinking is harder work than hard work.
Leo Rosten
Image
Where there is too much, something is missing.
Leo Rosten
Image
Everyone, in some small sacred sanctuary of the self, is nuts.
Leo Rosten
Image
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.
Leo Rosten
Image
Happiness comes only when we push our brains and hearts to the farthest reaches of which we are capable.
Leo Rosten
Image
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.
Leo Rosten
Image
If you are going to do something wrong, at least enjoy it.
Leo Rosten
Image
Courage is the capacity to confront what can be imagined.
Leo Rosten
Image
Extremists think 'communication' means agreeing with them.
Leo Rosten
Image
The fellow who laughs last may laugh best, but he gets the reputation of being very slow-witted.
Leo Rosten
Image
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
Image
Hope is ambiguous, but fear is precious.
Leo Rosten
Image
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.
Leo Rosten
Image
Every writer is a narcissist. This does not mean that he is vain it only means that he is hopelessly self-absorbed.
Leo Rosten
Image
Money can't buy happiness, but neither can poverty.
Leo Rosten
Image
Words must surely be counted among the most powerful drugs man ever invented.
Leo Rosten
Image
Machines certainly can solve problems, store information, correlate, and play games - but not with pleasure.
Leo Rosten