Mason Cooley

Many have never felt strong, but everyone knows what it is to feel weak.

— Mason Cooley

Now defined as art, the totem has lost cult, taboo, and custom.

— Mason Cooley

The supposed unhappiness of the rich is always a cheerful topic of conversation.

— Mason Cooley

Even in writing an annual report, the unconscious plays a role.

— Mason Cooley

The horizon is more than a convention of landscape painting, less than truth.

— Mason Cooley

At retirement, switching from "I must" to "I want" leaves me puzzled and uneasy.

— Mason Cooley

Pedagogical romances leave the mentor disgruntled, the pupil confused.

— Mason Cooley

Mortality: not acquittal but a series of postponements is what we hope for.

— Mason Cooley

Procrastination and impatience form a system of checks and balances.

— 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

Laughing at our friends, we avenge the disappointment they have caused.

— Mason Cooley

Writing is a refuge from unhappiness, but has its own sorrows.

— 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

When I try to portray to myself my heart's desire, nothing happens.

— Mason Cooley

If a problem is insoluble, it is Necessity. Leave it alone.

— Mason Cooley

Three people marooned on a desert island would soon reinvent politics.

— Mason Cooley

Position yourself well enough, and circumstances will do the rest.

— Mason Cooley

Reason argues the case, but fact may determine the judgment.

— Mason Cooley

Lonely people console themselves with self-absorption or curiosity.

— Mason Cooley

The life of pleasure breeds boredom. The life of duty breeds resentment.

— Mason Cooley

Good advice is never as helpful as an interest-free loan.

— Mason Cooley

Paradox implies that stating a contradiction disposes of it.

— Mason Cooley

Acknowledge your limitations or they will tyrannize over you.

— Mason Cooley

A well-paid occupation is seldom spoken of as "rewarding.

— Mason Cooley

Let's have some good, old-fashioned literature, with a virgin and a moral.

— Mason Cooley

Understanding replaces imaginary fears with real ones.

— Mason Cooley

I am open-minded on all questions I care nothing about.

— Mason Cooley

Every path to a new understanding begins in confusion...

— Mason Cooley

Rules that are never violated cease to be recognized as Rules.

— Mason Cooley

No matter how close thought sticks to the actual, it follows its own rules.

— Mason Cooley

Nostalgia keeps dissolving the ironic narratives in which I have contained my past.

— Mason Cooley

Sincerity: willingness to spend one's own money.

— Mason Cooley