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… - Leo Rosten

Chutzpa is that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan.

George S. Kaufman, a prince of wit, once remarked that he liked to write with his collaborator, Moss Hart, because Hart was so lucky. “In my case,” said Kaufman, “it’s gelt by association.

In the Jewish communities of Europe, learned but poor Jews were much, much more highly respected than rich but unlearned ones. Am horets meant “uneducated” or “uncultured” (just as “villain,” in English, originally designated a serf, and “boor,” a peasant);