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If at first you don't succeed, before you try again, stop to figure out what you did wrong.

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
Figure
Figures
Succeed
Stop
Wrong
Firsts
First
Trying

More quotes by Leo Rosten

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Her cooking suggested she had attended the Cordon Noir.
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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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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.
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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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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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If you are going to do something wrong, at least enjoy it.
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Humor is the affectionate communication of insight.
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Machines certainly can solve problems, store information, correlate, and play games - but not with pleasure.
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Where there is too much, something is missing.
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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.
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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.
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Courage is the capacity to confront what can be imagined.
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Extremists think 'communication' means agreeing with them.
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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.
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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.
Leo Rosten
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Hope is ambiguous, but fear is precious.
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Thinking is harder work than hard work.
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The hardest part of growing up is learning how to wait
Leo Rosten
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The purpose of life is not to be happy, the purpose of life is to matter.
Leo Rosten