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

Leo Rosten
Novelist

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

Leo Rosten
Novelist

Humor is the affectionate communication of insight.

Leo Rosten
Novelist

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

Leo Rosten
Novelist

I never cease being dumbfounded by the unbelievable things people believe.

Leo Rosten
Novelist

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
Novelist

Satire is focused bitterness.

Leo Rosten
Novelist

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

Leo Rosten
Novelist

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

Leo Rosten
Novelist

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
Novelist