Mason Cooley

To avoid doing anything, wait for the right circumstances.

— Mason Cooley

Saying I feel guilty is a mere form of words. Saying I feel ashamed is not.

— Mason Cooley

Good books do not make people wiser or happier--only more conscious.

— Mason Cooley

The aphorism wants to be at the same time both main line and off beat.

— Mason Cooley

The extravagance of intellect outstrips the extravagance of desire.

— Mason Cooley

I love money, but will money ever love me in return?

— Mason Cooley

If the world would apologize, I might consider a reconciliation.

— Mason Cooley

Experience teaches us, but we scarcely know what.

— Mason Cooley

The aphorism offers a momentary sense of mastery over some confusion or unhappiness.

— Mason Cooley

Self-satisfaction and self-pity are both condemned. What are people permitted to feel about themselves?

— Mason Cooley

Emblem: the carapace of the great crowned snail is painted with all the flags of the United Nations.

— Mason Cooley

Deconstruction glorifies the critic, humiliates the author, and makes the reader wonder why he bothered.

— Mason Cooley

I am often attracted to people with whom I could not hold a five minute conversation.

— Mason Cooley

I am now old enough to make common cause with my predecessors against my successors.

— Mason Cooley

The closeups of pornography make human genitals look like undiscovered prehistoric animals.

— Mason Cooley

Discontented women dream of being rescued by Prince Charming. Discontented men dream of finding a horny blond in the back seat ofa…

— Mason Cooley

Every life has a love story, even though the beloved may be imaginary, or a cat.

— Mason Cooley

The ugly can achieve an absoluteness beyond the reach of beauty.

— Mason Cooley

An aphorism that does not score is just one more sentence.

— Mason Cooley

Symbolism erects a facade of respectability to hide the indecency of dreams.

— Mason Cooley

Youth demands more than ordinary life. Age clings to it.

— Mason Cooley

Sometimes the only way to become grounded is to hit bottom.

— Mason Cooley

My father was a patriarch inside a matriarchy, but never knew it.

— Mason Cooley

The same old thing--even if it's champagne--is still the same old thing.

— Mason Cooley

Paradox implies that stating acontradiction disposes of it.

— Mason Cooley

To be successful be ahead of your time, but only a little.

— Mason Cooley

Perversity depends on reversal and substitution.

— Mason Cooley

Jealousy fuses megalomania and self-abandonment.

— Mason Cooley

We are prepared for insults, but compliments leave us baffled.

— Mason Cooley

Only the broken-hearted know the truth about love.

— Mason Cooley

Money gives me more energy than all the Granola bars in the world.

— Mason Cooley

Belief forages, moving from pasture to pasture.

— Mason Cooley

Creativity makes a leap, then looks to see where it is.

— Mason Cooley

Fastidious taste makes enjoyment a struggle.

— Mason Cooley

I am never more myself than in my self-betrayals.

— Mason Cooley

Oblivion waits without beckoning or threatening.

— Mason Cooley

Intelligence is predatory, but full of fastidiousness and frights.

— Mason Cooley

The bathroom scale knows nothing of extenuating circumstances.

— Mason Cooley

The right time to die is never exactly now.

— Mason Cooley

Genius knows where the questions are hidden.

— Mason Cooley