Mason Cooley

The hysterical find too much significance in things. The depressed find too little.

— Mason Cooley

The suburbs: signs of life, but no proofs.

— Mason Cooley

A sense of righteousness is even more dangerous than a violent temper.

— Mason Cooley

My young friend supposes his ingenuousness is merely a ruse.

— Mason Cooley

Fear of trying causes paralysis. Trying causes only trembling and sweating.

— Mason Cooley

Blonds look angelic, but can (oh, happy!) be fleshy as well.

— Mason Cooley

We take refuge in illness and then are trapped there.

— Mason Cooley

Every literary critic believes he will outwit history and have the last word.

— Mason Cooley

In middle age, I practiced feeling old, but the real thing has been a rude surprise.

— Mason Cooley

The tragic hero prefers death to prudence. The comedian prefers playing tricks to winning. Only the villain really plays to win.

— Mason Cooley

Electricity, water, gas, and steam course through the walls of my building, keeping it alive.

— Mason Cooley

Deconstruction: peering suspiciously at the text, I wait for it to make a slip and betray itself.

— Mason Cooley

Freedom is the moment between sleep and waking before selfhood and the world return.

— Mason Cooley

My intentions go one way, my desires another. Thus I feel both self-indulgent and deprived.

— Mason Cooley

The pointless ferocities of intellectual life shock businessmen, who kill only to eat.

— Mason Cooley

Placing the extraordinary at the center of the ordinary, as realism does, is a great comfort to us stay-at-homes.

— Mason Cooley

If we think about the obvious long enough, it dissolves.

— Mason Cooley

Nonsense is socially OK, but not stupidity.

— Mason Cooley

The power of the past does not depend on our knowledge of it.

— Mason Cooley

A Museum of fetishes would give special attention to the history of underwear.

— Mason Cooley

The popping of bubblegum discourages the most determined lecher.

— Mason Cooley

Nothing easier than to confuse busyness with goodness.

— Mason Cooley

Unlike art and sex, money always arouses interest.

— Mason Cooley

Expenditure now attracts fame as conquest once did.

— Mason Cooley

People are not the way they are primarily in order to annoy me.

— Mason Cooley

Pain narrows consciousness; pleasure blurs it.

— Mason Cooley

A skyscraper is a boast in glass and steel.

— Mason Cooley

Conscience is the moralized form of self-absorption.

— Mason Cooley

An imprudent enemy is less dangerous than an imprudent friend.

— Mason Cooley

Disappointment proves that expectations were mistaken.

— Mason Cooley

After a moment of shrinking back, we domesticate the grotesque.

— Mason Cooley

The smile of a politician is strong and friendly, but noncommittal.

— Mason Cooley

I feel disappointed, but I don't remember just what I expected.

— Mason Cooley

Not romance but companionship makes the happiness of daily life.

— Mason Cooley

Most self-laceration is more noisy than painful.

— Mason Cooley

Mathematics: silent harmonies. Music: sounding numbers.

— Mason Cooley

The sorrow of not being movie stars overwhelms millions.

— Mason Cooley

Pleasure usually comes when called, but not happiness.

— Mason Cooley

I feel that I have something significant to say, but I cannot think what it is.

— Mason Cooley

Prudence does not save us, but shows us pictures of our destroyers.

— Mason Cooley