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Happiness Quotes by Mason Cooley

29 Happiness quotes by Mason Cooley

All Happiness quotes Mason Cooley’s page

Mason Cooley’s knack for clever phrasing shines in these twenty‑nine brief musings on happiness. Expect a mix of humor and insight that nudges readers to smile at life’s quirks.

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Unhappiness is too common to call for special measures.

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Frivolous sorrow is folly. Frivolous enjoyment is not.

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Pleasure usually comes when called, but not happiness.

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Poor but happy is not a phrase invented by a poor person.

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Treat unhappiness as a defect and fewer would embrace it.

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Prudence suspects that happiness is a bait set by risk.

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Office politics are bloody-minded, but weak on content.

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Wisdom is founded on memory; happiness on forgetfulness.

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All history and art are against us, but we still expect happiness in love.

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Prudence does not make people happy; it merely deprives them of the excitement of being constantly in trouble.

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You are as happy as you think you are, but not necessarily as miserable as you imagine.

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Everyone knows that (1) happiness is the goal of life, and (2) happiness is a chimera.

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

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Not romance but companionship makes the happiness of daily life.

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Drugs bring us to to the gates of paradise, then keep us from entering.

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The Ordinary Life: the misery seems planned, the happiness accidental.

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Dancing and running shake up the chemistry of happiness.

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Cheerfulness is a policy; happiness is a talent.

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Happiness is often hard-hearted.

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Every parent can imagine the joys of child abuse.

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Do not wait for a reason to be happy.

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Many pains are imaginary, but all joys are real.

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The rich are happier than we are, and should be.

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Complainers rule out happiness, mentioning it only as something lost.

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As a child I was told by my parents that I was happy, but I did not believe them.

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Think of the many different relations of form and content. E.g., the many pairs of trousers and what's in them.

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

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

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The telephone gives us the happiness of being together yet safely apart.

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

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The modernist writers found despair inspirational.

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Even the most abject have a sense of superiority based on powerful though undefined merits.

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Money comes to life as it is spent.

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

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Rage is exciting, but leaves me confused and exhausted.

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Literary tradition is full of lies about poverty-the jolly beggar, the poor but happy milkmaid, the wholesome diet of porridge, etc.

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Experience teaches us, but we scarcely know what.

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The body has a mind of its own.

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In retirement, I look for days off from my days off. Mason Cooley

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

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The Puritan sours his pleasures by disguising them as duties.

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