Mason Cooley

I enjoy my rights, but I revel in my privileges.

— Mason Cooley

The eye deals with excess more easily than the stomach does.

— Mason Cooley

When I prayed for success, I forgot to ask for sound sleep and good digestion.

— Mason Cooley

The idealist regards facts as provisional.

— Mason Cooley

No chaos, no creation. Evidence: the kitchen at mealtime.

— Mason Cooley

Unhappiness is too common to call for special measures.

— Mason Cooley

Somehow the body keeps life going despite the ravaging negations of the mind.

— Mason Cooley

Civilization creates discontents; barbarism creates quick endings.

— Mason Cooley

F. Scott Fitzgerald thought that prolonging his adolescence would protect his talent.

— Mason Cooley

Reading about ethics is about as likely to improve one's behavior as reading about sports is to make one into an athlete.

— Mason Cooley

People often are unsure whether or not they are in love, but they generally know whether or not they are having sex.

— Mason Cooley

Street sign: Ho Hum Road & Easy Street In retirement, I look for days off from my days off.

— Mason Cooley

I reject all evidence that my fabulous beloved is an ordinary person who worries, watches TV, and has bouts of indigestion.

— Mason Cooley

Our civilization is shifting from science and technology to rhetoric and litigation.

— Mason Cooley

The philosophy of hedonism means little to lovers of pleasure. They have no inclination to read philosophy, or to write it.

— Mason Cooley

Wisdom has lost repute because it so often applies to a state of affairs that no longer exists.

— Mason Cooley

Acknowledge your limitationsor they will tyrannize over you.

— Mason Cooley

Charity does not like arithmetic; selfishness worships it.

— Mason Cooley

Failure makes us envious. Success makes us greedy.

— Mason Cooley

I know that I am very much like everybody else, but not really.

— Mason Cooley

Sophistication knows the score, but is powerless to change it.

— Mason Cooley

My neglected duties crowd around me in my dreams, murmuring.

— Mason Cooley

Holding unconventional opinions makes people feel they have strong characters.

— Mason Cooley

Clothes make the body both mysterious and historical.

— Mason Cooley

Wallace Stevens: the Platonist celebrates endless change, but with regret.

— Mason Cooley

Fruitless striving breeds less despair than inaction.

— Mason Cooley

Cruel impulses stir all about my kindly heart.

— Mason Cooley

Reclusive? The inner city will secure your privacy better than any desert cave.

— Mason Cooley

Age must give way to youth, no doubt. But not yet, not yet.

— Mason Cooley

In psychoanalysis, only the fee is exactly what it seems to be.

— Mason Cooley

Learned researches lead to headaches, constipation, and befuddled quarreling.

— Mason Cooley

Flattery has to overcome my mistrust, and it does.

— Mason Cooley

Affection reproaches, but does not denounce.

— Mason Cooley

If you are going to break a Law of Art, make the crime interesting.

— Mason Cooley

Health foods make promises that only the Second Coming could fulfill.

— Mason Cooley

An ardent lover often makes a cold friend.

— Mason Cooley

Moderation in all things is best, but it's pretty hard to get excited about it.

— Mason Cooley

A sense of absurdity interferes with my efforts to appear venerable.

— Mason Cooley

Lies and promises are necessary but not sufficient.

— Mason Cooley

By multiplying ironies, I evade commitments.

— Mason Cooley