Mason Cooley

We may eat dinner together, but everyone puts the food in his own mouth.

— Mason Cooley

Worry is not thought; complaining is not action.

— Mason Cooley

“After desolation, grief brings back our humanity”

— Mason Cooley

Good parties create a temporary youthfulness.

— Mason Cooley

Boredom strives to detach, but finds itself stuck.

— Mason Cooley

Always leave room for the reader to supply meanings.

— Mason Cooley

In the present age, a man with harmonious ideas is regarded as out of touch.

— Mason Cooley

Why do we never expect dull people to be rascals?

— Mason Cooley

Street sign: Ho Hum Road & Easy Street In retirement, I look for days off from my days off.

— Mason Cooley

I reject all evidence that my fabulous beloved is an ordinary person who worries, watches TV, and has bouts of indigestion.

— Mason Cooley

I would like to be a figment of my own imagination, but belly and bowels will not permit.

— Mason Cooley

The etiquette of romantic love is as elaborate as that surrounding the Emperor of China.

— Mason Cooley

Pornography does not inspire violence, but you can break a leg trying to imitate it.

— Mason Cooley

When love and adventure are finished, it's nice to have getting and spending to fall back on.

— Mason Cooley

The Lady: a fluty voice, sensible shoes, a melancholy sense of living by rules few still remember.

— Mason Cooley

Children pay little attention to their parents' teachings, but reproduce their characters faithfully

— Mason Cooley

Work saves us from melancholy. Pleasure exposes us to it.

— Mason Cooley

Curiosity is an asset mostly frittered away.

— Mason Cooley

Comedy defends the commonplace; tragedy explodes it.

— Mason Cooley

I have a special grudge against those who have the same faults as I do.

— Mason Cooley

Hope and despair ignore one another's cries.

— Mason Cooley

Memories contain hidden editorials on current events.

— Mason Cooley

I enjoy my rights, but I revel in my privileges.

— Mason Cooley

When I prayed for success, I forgot to ask for sound sleep and good digestion.

— Mason Cooley

The eye deals with excess more easily than the stomach does.

— Mason Cooley

If your nose is up in the air, you cannot see where you are going.

— Mason Cooley

My self-absorption warms me; yours boils me.

— Mason Cooley

The idealist regards facts as provisional.

— Mason Cooley

No chaos, no creation. Evidence: the kitchen at mealtime.

— Mason Cooley

Somehow the body keeps life going despite the ravaging negations of the mind.

— Mason Cooley

Unhappiness is too common to call for special measures.

— Mason Cooley

A theology whose god is a metaphor is wasting its time.

— Mason Cooley

I know that I am very much like everybody else, but not really.

— Mason Cooley

Failure makes us envious. Success makes us greedy.

— Mason Cooley

Sophistication knows the score, but is powerless to change it.

— Mason Cooley

Acknowledge your limitationsor they will tyrannize over you.

— Mason Cooley

Civilization creates discontents; barbarism creates quick endings.

— Mason Cooley

Charity does not like arithmetic; selfishness worships it.

— Mason Cooley

The desire to perform impedes conversation.

— Mason Cooley

In psychoanalysis, only the fee is exactly what it seems to be.

— Mason Cooley