Mason Cooley

There is a line between a definite maybe and an indefinite yes.

— Mason Cooley

Thought maps existence; fantasy colors it.

— Mason Cooley

Rage against the world, if you like, but quietly, or the Guardians will awake.

— Mason Cooley

Every work of art changes its predecessors.

— Mason Cooley

Self-hatred and self-love are equally self-centered.

— Mason Cooley

My strengths make me contemptuous. My weaknesses make me charitable.

— Mason Cooley

Sexual attraction keeps throwing self-interest off course.

— Mason Cooley

Lovers remain in the dark, working hard to keep out daylight.

— Mason Cooley

Everyone knows that (1) happiness is the goal of life, and (2) happiness is a chimera.

— Mason Cooley

The soul is no longer honored as it once was, but it still keeps appetite from being the measure of all things.

— Mason Cooley

A happy arrangement: many people prefer cats to other people, and many cats prefer people to other cats.

— Mason Cooley

Against classical philosophy: thinking about eternity or the immensity of the universe does not lessen my unhappiness.

— Mason Cooley

Withhold admiration from a narcissist and be disliked. Give it and be treated with indifference.

— Mason Cooley

The beginning of self-knowledge: recognizing that your motives are the same as other people's.

— Mason Cooley

Young poets bewail the passing of love; old poets, the passing of time. There is surprisingly little difference.

— Mason Cooley

Prudence does not make people happy; it merely deprives them of the excitement of being constantly in trouble.

— Mason Cooley

Under attack, sentiments harden into dogma.

— Mason Cooley

The best hand always believes in playing by the rules.

— Mason Cooley

I must like my profession, since I can hardly distinguish myself from it.

— Mason Cooley

I am the center of the world, but the control panel seems to be somewhere else.

— Mason Cooley

Sweet smiles soften judgment. Sweet haunches unseat it.

— Mason Cooley

“Reading gives us someplace to go when we must stay where we are.”

— Mason Cooley

Technique bridges among ideas, and sometimes generates them.

— Mason Cooley

The more learned a writer, the more digression beckons him.

— Mason Cooley

Magic trick: to make people disappear, ask them to fulfill their promises.

— Mason Cooley

I am plain-speaking out of both sides of my mouth.

— Mason Cooley

The power of lying is much less than the power of what is not to be discussed.

— Mason Cooley

Clouds of flavors and savors float around the thing-in-itself.

— Mason Cooley

With age, the mind grows slower and more wily.

— Mason Cooley

To be fulfilled, a prophecy needs lots of flexibility.

— Mason Cooley

At sixty, I would like to give my future back its vistas of uncertainty.

— Mason Cooley

Reputation runs behind the current state of affairs.

— Mason Cooley

Dancing and running shake up the chemistry of happiness.

— Mason Cooley

Scholarship can find little to say about the obvious.

— Mason Cooley

Funerals prove that someone is really gone.

— Mason Cooley

The best propaganda omits rather than invents

— Mason Cooley

The tranquility of my room partakes too much of Forest Lawn.

— Mason Cooley

If everything had a label, we would live in a fully delineated but false world.

— Mason Cooley

Awakening in the morning returns us to life, and to awareness of death.

— Mason Cooley

Our detachments move us toward freedom and death.

— Mason Cooley