Mason Cooley

Life is used up all the same, whether we save, spend, or waste it.

— Mason Cooley

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

— Mason Cooley

Innocence: I am only stepping on your face because it lies in my path.

— Mason Cooley

No one can remember himself as an unpleasant child.

— Mason Cooley

Keep your lies short and simple.

— Mason Cooley

If you are going to be rude, be quick about it.

— Mason Cooley

A blocked path also offers guidance.

— Mason Cooley

Original sin reassures us that our slip was not the first.

— Mason Cooley

In the great cities, winter glitters with art and feasting. But poetry, the country cousin, sees only the dearth of the fields.

— Mason Cooley

If everything had a label, we would live in a fully delineated but false world.

— Mason Cooley

Alone, I am drunk on my thoughts; in company, I am sober again.

— Mason Cooley

The limits of prudence: one cannot jump out of a burning building gradually.

— Mason Cooley

I am often attracted to people with whom I could not hold a five minute conversation.

— Mason Cooley

I am kept in bondage by the moles of my beloved.

— Mason Cooley

People invent gods to explain their suffering.

— Mason Cooley

Enough is ever-receding.

— Mason Cooley

The rich feel full of merit.

— Mason Cooley

Writing an upbeat aphorism is a temptation, but decorum forbids.

— Mason Cooley

Ideologies can survive hostility, but not indifference.

— Mason Cooley

Abyss-mongering makes professors and poets feel daring.

— Mason Cooley

To understand someone, find out how he spends his money.

— Mason Cooley

Tolerance is a placid contempt.

— Mason Cooley

The meaning of today will not be clear until tomorrow.

— Mason Cooley

Adversity can strengthen us if it does not go on too long.

— Mason Cooley

To confer dignity, forgive. To express contempt, forget.

— Mason Cooley