Mason Cooley

Once wealth and beauty are gone, there is always rural life.

— Mason Cooley

Eccentricity: strength of character doubling back on itself.

— Mason Cooley

Anyone who feels like a fool has made a good beginning.

— Mason Cooley

Orgies are an early form of what will someday become sex by committee.

— Mason Cooley

Working cuts down on both folly and wisdom.

— Mason Cooley

When sages commend excess, Desire is sick.

— Mason Cooley

Now that I see you understand me so well, I will avoid you.

— Mason Cooley

To a suicide: You just poisoned the wrong person.

— Mason Cooley

Young poets bewail the passing of love; old poets, the passing of time. There is surprisingly little difference.

— Mason Cooley

When my expectations are exactly fulfilled, I feel that something uncanny has happened.

— Mason Cooley

Realism absorbs the ideal by adding a few small imperfections. Example: it paints a few specks of mud on the white gown…

— Mason Cooley

To avoid taking responsibility, I become unresponsive but hang on until the other person leaves me.

— Mason Cooley

Mars and Venus are at it again. This time, Hephaestus is standing by with a private detective, a photographer, and a lawyer.

— Mason Cooley

The lazy manage to keep up with the earth's rotation just as well as the industrious.

— Mason Cooley

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

— Mason Cooley

Thank God for the passing of the discomforts and vile cuisine of the age of chivalry!

— Mason Cooley

Forget what hurt you but never forget what it thaught you.

— Mason Cooley

Many think that assigning blame settles matters.

— Mason Cooley

Self-hatred and self-love are equally self-centered.

— Mason Cooley

Every work of art changes its predecessors.

— Mason Cooley

My strengths make me contemptuous. My weaknesses make me charitable.

— Mason Cooley

Consensus is usually made possible by vague language and shallow commitments.

— Mason Cooley

Until I am ready to lose weight, I cannot see how fat I am.

— Mason Cooley

There is a line between a definite maybe and an indefinite yes.

— Mason Cooley

Our most important decisions are made while we are thinking about something else.

— Mason Cooley

Thought maps existence; fantasy colors it.

— Mason Cooley

I am plain-speaking out of both sides of my mouth.

— Mason Cooley

The power of lying is much less than the power of what is not to be discussed.

— Mason Cooley

With age, the mind grows slower and more wily.

— Mason Cooley

Clouds of flavors and savors float around the thing-in-itself.

— Mason Cooley

To be fulfilled, a prophecy needs lots of flexibility.

— Mason Cooley

At sixty, I would like to give my future back its vistas of uncertainty.

— Mason Cooley

Under attack, sentiments harden into dogma.

— Mason Cooley

Lovers remain in the dark, working hard to keep out daylight.

— Mason Cooley

The best hand always believes in playing by the rules.

— Mason Cooley

Sexual attraction keeps throwing self-interest off course.

— Mason Cooley

I must like my profession, since I can hardly distinguish myself from it.

— Mason Cooley

“Reading gives us someplace to go when we must stay where we are.”

— Mason Cooley

Technique bridges among ideas, and sometimes generates them.

— Mason Cooley

Sweet smiles soften judgment. Sweet haunches unseat it.

— Mason Cooley