Mason Cooley

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

— Mason Cooley

Boredom and fear keep us working and obeying the laws.

— Mason Cooley

I want to appear ordinary, but I have it understood that I am not.

— Mason Cooley

The transcendental promises a vacation from history.

— Mason Cooley

I did not know I was in my prime until afterwards.

— Mason Cooley

Aimless drifting also fulfills an intention.

— Mason Cooley

At the end of every diet, the path curves back to the trough.

— Mason Cooley

I would enjoy experiencing the hollowness of success at first- hand.

— Mason Cooley

The cues that arouse desire are changed by Fashion, but feel like the proddings of Nature.

— Mason Cooley

My mind no longer has romantic abysses, but has become shallow, with many little gaps and cracks.

— Mason Cooley

Worried about being a dull fellow? You might develop your talent for being irritating.

— Mason Cooley

The psychiatrist's office: the only place I can be sure my story will be treated as sad, but interesting.

— Mason Cooley

I'm being treated like a sex object, cried the lady. No matter. I will take care of it, said Time soothingly.

— Mason Cooley

Some marriages depend on domestic arguments the way the courts depend on litigation.

— Mason Cooley

In adding up her assets, the ambitious lady calculated the worth of her beautiful body as coldly as everything else.

— Mason Cooley

A restaurant with candles and flowers evokes more reveries than the Isle of Bali does.

— Mason Cooley

Death is always there, just beneath the surface.

— Mason Cooley

Scholars dream of finding small facts pregnant with great progeny.

— Mason Cooley

I feel disappointed, but I don't remember just what I expected.

— Mason Cooley

Not romance but companionship makes the happiness of daily life.

— Mason Cooley

Most self-laceration is more noisy than painful.

— Mason Cooley

Mathematics: silent harmonies. Music: sounding numbers.

— Mason Cooley

After a moment of shrinking back, we domesticate the grotesque.

— Mason Cooley

The smile of a politician is strong and friendly, but noncommittal.

— Mason Cooley

A skyscraper is a boast in glass and steel.

— Mason Cooley

Conscience is the moralized form of self-absorption.

— Mason Cooley

Pain narrows consciousness; pleasure blurs it.

— Mason Cooley

People are not the way they are primarily in order to annoy me.

— Mason Cooley

An imprudent enemy is less dangerous than an imprudent friend.

— Mason Cooley

Disappointment proves that expectations were mistaken.

— Mason Cooley

The popping of bubblegum discourages the most determined lecher.

— Mason Cooley

Nothing easier than to confuse busyness with goodness.

— Mason Cooley

Expenditure now attracts fame as conquest once did.

— Mason Cooley

Unlike art and sex, money always arouses interest.

— Mason Cooley

My young friend supposes his ingenuousness is merely a ruse.

— Mason Cooley

Blonds look angelic, but can (oh, happy!) be fleshy as well.

— Mason Cooley

Fear of trying causes paralysis. Trying causes only trembling and sweating.

— Mason Cooley

Every literary critic believes he will outwit history and have the last word.

— Mason Cooley

We take refuge in illness and then are trapped there.

— Mason Cooley

A Museum of fetishes would give special attention to the history of underwear.

— Mason Cooley