Leo Rosten Quotes

1908–1997 United States

Leo Calvin Rosten (11 April 1908 – 19 February 1997) was an American teacher, academic and humorist best remembered for his stories about the night-school "prodigy" Hyman Kaplan and for The Joys of Yiddish (1968).

United States
Academics
Educators
Humorists
Non-fiction authors

Random Leo Rosten quote

6 quotes

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

What's green, hangs on a wall and whistles?

Riddle presented in The Joys of Yiddish (1968)

Extremists think "communication" means agreeing with them.

Peter's Quotations: Ideas for Our Time (1979)

The only thing I can say about W. C. Fields … is this: Any man who hates dogs and babies can't be all bad.

Conservative: One who admires radicals a century after they're dead.

The Modern Handbook of Humor (1967)

The purpose of life is not to be happy at all. It is to be useful, to be honorable. It is to be compassionate. It is to matter, to have it make some difference that you lived.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Leo Rosten (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.