Mason Cooley

I am kept in bondage by the moles of my beloved.

— Mason Cooley

To make a thought my own, I must think it often.

— Mason Cooley

The haiku lets meaning float; the aphorism pins it down.

— Mason Cooley

Wealth makes the laws that poverty must obey.

— Mason Cooley

Art begins in imitation and ends in innovation.

— Mason Cooley

Even the most fickle are faithful to a few bad habits.

— Mason Cooley

Inequality is a fact. Equality is a value.

— Mason Cooley

Old age learns about less after a lifetime of more.

— Mason Cooley

Avid readers are enchanted by meaning, which is available chiefly in books.

— Mason Cooley

Envy awakens at the sound of a distant laugh.

— Mason Cooley

Most bad luck is the misfortune of not being an exception.

— Mason Cooley

I see what you mean, but I do not think what you think.

— Mason Cooley

Every parent can imagine the joys of child abuse.

— Mason Cooley

As the tenor roars his passion, I think sadly of my spreading middle, and his.

— Mason Cooley

Methodology gives those with no ideas something to do.

— Mason Cooley

The doctrine of the immortality of the soul has more threat than comfort.

— Mason Cooley

'Be faithful to your roots' is the liberal version of 'Stay in your ghetto.'

— Mason Cooley

Literary criticism now is all pranks and polemics.

— Mason Cooley

Skepticism may undermine beliefs, but never belief.

— Mason Cooley

Retirement is a one-way trip to insignificance.

— Mason Cooley

Carnal knowledge is as forgettable as the other kinds.

— Mason Cooley

Promiscuity turns sex into a sport, like arm-wrestling.

— Mason Cooley

Always clamping down on excitement is not self-control but fear.

— Mason Cooley

The educated can listen impassively to almost anything.

— Mason Cooley

The ironies in the commonplace are my inspiration and delight.

— Mason Cooley

Travelling carries me to the surface, away from the deeps of home-thoughts.

— Mason Cooley

Nature knows no difference between weeds and flowers.

— Mason Cooley

I feel affluent or not according to what part of town I am in.

— Mason Cooley

My obsessions used to be my protectors, but now they have taken me prisoner.

— Mason Cooley

Too timid to talk back, I shot my adversary.

— Mason Cooley

Only the strong and the hopeful are able to revolt.

— Mason Cooley

Dogs often remind us of the human, ail-too human. Cats, never.

— Mason Cooley

Writing an upbeat aphorism is a temptation, but decorum forbids.

— Mason Cooley

A laughing Lear would be monstrous. Not so a laughing Romeo and Juliet.

— Mason Cooley

Often, when I want to consult my impulses, I cannot find them.

— Mason Cooley

Self-sacrifice usually contains an unspoken demand for payment.

— Mason Cooley

Don't stare into a mirror when you are trying to solve a problem.

— Mason Cooley

A work of art is an echo chamber which repeats what people say about it.

— Mason Cooley

Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are.

— Mason Cooley

Snarls and sobs show that a love affair is getting serious.

— Mason Cooley