Mason Cooley

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

— Mason Cooley

Dreams are distorted representations of desire. So are dream- analyses.

— Mason Cooley

The cow's point of view deserves more literary attention.

— Mason Cooley

An event is not over until everyone is tired of talking about it.

— Mason Cooley

Scepticism is always a back road leading to some credo or other.

— Mason Cooley

Every few years something new breaks into the circle of my thoughts.

— Mason Cooley

With age, I have become both more pious and more shameless.

— Mason Cooley

Eccentricity is originality that leads nowhere.

— Mason Cooley

The harp is an insipid instrument--no good for dancing, feasting, or marching, only for sitting primly in a parlor or on a…

— Mason Cooley

The interest in Wisdom is fading. Soon there will not be enough left to support the aphorism, even though it tries to…

— Mason Cooley

A dense undergrowth of extension cords sustains my upper world of lights, music, and machines of comfort.

— Mason Cooley

Unconditional love is a lofty ideal, but unconditional hate is a fact well documented by history.

— Mason Cooley

In philosophy, the principles are more interesting than the examples. In literature, the examples are more interesting than the principles.

— Mason Cooley

The nature of language may determine what most people say, but I always speak my own meaning.

— Mason Cooley

At the dinner table, if you can't think of anything to say, sit quietly. Don't throw rolls, or chew on your napkin.

— Mason Cooley

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

— Mason Cooley

I am no longer in love, but I still have my jealousy.

— Mason Cooley

Austerity causes constipation; excess, diarrhea.

— Mason Cooley

Most people regard getting their way as a matter of simple justice.

— Mason Cooley

I have tried being surreal, but my frogs hop right back into their realistic ponds.

— Mason Cooley

The aphorism sometimes casts off cynicism and expresses strong feeling.

— Mason Cooley

If success is a habit, it is a hard one to acquire.

— Mason Cooley

Tales of adultery are much improved by period costumes.

— Mason Cooley

In every death, a busy world comes to an end.

— Mason Cooley

Lust and greed are more gullible than innocence.

— Mason Cooley

The sacred is found boring by many who find the uncanny fascinating.

— Mason Cooley

Something is sticking out its tongue at me from the corner of my mirror.

— Mason Cooley

To appear well dressed, be skinny and tall.

— Mason Cooley

The noisy vacancy of youth, the quiet vacancy of age.

— Mason Cooley

Beautiful people are forgiven more often than the rest.

— Mason Cooley

Lead the reader toward the thought, then stop a little short.

— Mason Cooley

Good manners can render even virtue tolerable.

— Mason Cooley

Literature may be false, but it is not trivial.

— Mason Cooley

People are reluctant to cite boredom as grounds for divorce.

— Mason Cooley

Metaphysics keeps surviving its obituaries.

— Mason Cooley

Asceticism without religion is just another way of cultivating peculiar sensations.

— Mason Cooley

If your nose is up in the air, you cannot see where you are going.

— Mason Cooley

My self-absorption warms me; yours boils me.

— 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