Mason Cooley

Amateurs believe their enthusiasm will suffice.

— Mason Cooley

Don Juan tries not to see the skeptical winks that greet his boasting.

— Mason Cooley

Innocence: I am only stepping on your face because it lies in my path.

— Mason Cooley

No one could be the way I remember my father

— Mason Cooley

The vices of youth now exceed my powers, but not my fancy.

— Mason Cooley

People often imagine that being hard to please confers a certain superiority.

— Mason Cooley

The imaginary audience for my life is growing small and silent.

— Mason Cooley

The nonsense that charms is close to sense.

— Mason Cooley

Every time I change the way I explain myself to myself, I have to rearrange the story of my life.

— Mason Cooley

Since events are not metaphors, the literal-minded have a certain advantage in dealing with them.

— Mason Cooley

Amazing that the human race has taken enough time out from thinking about food or sex to create the arts and sciences.

— Mason Cooley

Perhaps fortunately, no one has ever found out what it would be like to have all his wishes fulfilled.

— Mason Cooley

An academic dialect is perfected when its terms are hard to understand and refer only to one another.

— Mason Cooley

As I criss-cross the city hurrying, I feel always the unchanging cold beneath the pavement.

— Mason Cooley

The man of sensibility is too busy talking about his feelings to have time for good deeds.

— Mason Cooley

My taking a seat on the Council of the Fathers caused a desperate fluttering among my ghosts.

— Mason Cooley

I regret. I apologize. I blame myself. I continue as before.

— Mason Cooley

Flatter me, but delicately, please, for I am fastidious.

— Mason Cooley

Everyone values the good nature of a man with a gun.

— Mason Cooley

I put second things first, and then worry about first things.

— Mason Cooley

In new situations, I look carefully at appearances. In familiar ones, I glance.

— Mason Cooley

A quick smile is more seductive than a slinky dress.

— Mason Cooley

Inconsistency has been overpraised by people who do not expect to suffer from it.

— Mason Cooley

No use saying necessity is making a mistake.

— Mason Cooley

Beggars remind us that not all miseries arise from our ideas.

— Mason Cooley

Readers transform a library from a mausoleum into many theaters.

— Mason Cooley

Stupidity is a fact of life, but unmentionable. The new Prudery.

— Mason Cooley

Self-righteousness is the most shameless slut of all.

— Mason Cooley

My mother's mild-eyed sadness looks at me from the eyes of those I love.

— Mason Cooley

The hero used to be the one in white. Now he is harder to spot.

— Mason Cooley

Comedy distances pain, but leaves signs of it everywhere.

— Mason Cooley

Wisdom knows when to return death's embrace.

— Mason Cooley

Spontaneity comes after skill, not before.

— Mason Cooley

Guilt agonizes over trifles, ignores habitual wrongdoing.

— Mason Cooley

Most of my decisions in life seem absent-minded but inevitable.

— Mason Cooley

A free spirit must be able to surmount anxiety time after time.

— Mason Cooley

Imprudence gets us into more trouble than actual misdeeds do.

— Mason Cooley

Death is just around the corner. If only it would stay there.

— Mason Cooley

Flattery and insults raise the same question: What do you want?

— Mason Cooley

Young girls giggle with nervous delight at the erections they inspire.

— Mason Cooley